People work on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, March 21, 2019. The “No Blue Jeans” rule was relaxed on the trading floor for the listing of Levi Strauss. The company, which gave America its first pair of blue jeans, is public again, for the second time. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)Levi Strauss & Co.’s return to the public markets got an enthusiastic reception from investors who believe the iconic brand is ready for a comeback – and still has a lot more room to grow.
The stock, which is listed under the ticker “LEVI,” opened for trading Thursday at $22.22, above the $17 offering price and blowing past the originally expected range of $14 to $16. As of Thursday’s close, shares popped nearly 32 percent, closing at $22.41 per share. That gave Levi’s a market value of $8.64 billion, according to FactSet.
Levi’s seems to have successfully convinced investors, at least for now, that it has a lot of opportunities to expand beyond just jeans, from tops to bolstering its women’s business. In its prospectus, the company says it plans to use the proceeds from the public offering to expand more aggressively into China, India and Brazil and also build out more retail stores, which as of late last year totaled 824.
But jeans are still the company’s mainstay and that was apparent on Thursday, when in a rare move the New York Stock Exchange suspended its “no jeans” policy to commemorate Levi’s re-entry, transforming the floor from suits and ties into a sea of blue denim, with its traders sporting jeans and denim jackets.
More than 120 employees from Levi’s global offices, including its CEO Chip Bergh outfitted in denim, were on the trading floor. On Wednesday, the NYSE even Tweeted, “Tomorrow we’ll be in our 501s.”