Photo Credit: All American Review

The famous jean company Levi Strauss and Co. released their IPO late last night on the New York Stock Exchange. The original price of each stock was $17 USD but once the market closed the price had jumped to $22.41 USD, an increase of almost 32% just in their first day of being on the stock market. This is the third biggest first-day increase in stock price for a nontech IPO since 2015.

Two-thirds of Levi’s outstanding shares will be owned by the family in charge of Levi Strauss and Co., and they will also have 99% control of voting power. This is a shared trait of recent IPOs called dual-class shares where the company issues two types of common stock with one class holding more voting power. Investors have recently begun to sacrifice voting rights for high returns on their stocks purchased. The family members of Levi Strauss view themselves as long-term investors, explaining that they favor having almost all the voting power. After the IPO, the family is expected to receive $462 million with an additional $161 million put into the company’s coffers.

The news of Levi Strauss’ successful IPO is important because it hints that other large companies that are planning to IPO, such as Lyft, Uber, and Pinterest, could see the same positive growth or even better. With Pinterest planning to release their IPO in April and Lyft’s being right around the corner, Levi has set the stage for these other companies and the future looks very promising.