Shares of Walmart-backed Ibotta soar on public debut | KLRT [Video]

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Ibotta, a Walmart-backed digital company that offers customers cash-back rewards and rebates on grocery brands ranging from Nestle to Coca-Cola, rose 17% in their Wall Street debut.

The stock, which trades under the ticker “IBTA” on the New York Stock Exchange, opened Thursday at $117, well above the $88 offering price. By mid-afternoon trading, it had lost some momentum and closed at $103.25, giving it a market value of more than $3 billion.

Ibotta joins a handful of tech companies like Instacart and Reddit that enjoyed a solid debut in the public markets. Last September, grocery delivery Instacart’s shares finished the day up 12.3% on Nasdaq, giving the company a market value of more than $11 billion. Reddit’s stock soared in its Wall Street debut in March of this year as investors pushed the value of the company close to $9 billion seconds after …