Palantir jumps 14% in trading debut after opening at $17 billion valuation

• The data-mining firm Palantir climbed as much as 14% on Wednesday in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
• Palantir opened at $10 per share, 38% above its reference price of $7.25. The subsequent climb marked a 14% increase from the opening price.
• The company began trading under the ticker PLTR after debuting with a direct listing over a traditional IPO.
• Direct listings allow shareholders to sell their stock to new investors without the company issuing new shares.
• Watch Palantir trade live here.

Palantir climbed as much as 14% in its first day of public-market trading following a direct listing.

The data-mining company began trading under the ticker PLTR on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday afternoon. Shares opened at $10, roughly 38% above the $7.25 reference price set by the exchange on Tuesday. The subsequent increase from the opening price marked a 14% increase.

The opening trade set a valuation of roughly $17 billion, lagging behind the company's 2015 private-market valuation of $20 billion. The increase pushed Palantir's market capitalization as high as $18.8 billion.

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Palantir is the latest company to enter the public market through a direct listing over a traditional initial public offering. Direct listings allow shareholders to trade stock with new investors without the company selling new shares. While Palantir didn't raise any capital through the debut, it didn't dilute its stock's value by increasing the number of shares outstanding.

Spotify and Slack have helped to popularize direct listings in recent years. Asana, a workplace-software firm, also used the method on Wednesday and jumped in its first day of trading.

Palantir has roughly 1.6 billion shares outstanding, 1.2 billion of which are Class A tradable shares. Palantir traded at $11.24 per share as of 1:50 p.m. ET.

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