NetSpend Makes Strong Stock Market Debut

In its initial day as a public company, NetSpend Holdings Inc.’s stock price rose 18% Oct. 19, closing at $13, up $2. Shares peaked at $13.47.

The prepaid card marketer is selling its shares on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol “NTSP.” The Austin, Texas-based company priced its initial public offering of 18.5 million shares of common stock at $11 per share.

NetSpend in July said it planned to raise $200 million through the IPO (see story). The company earned $203.5 million.

Some uncertainty surrounding card issuer Metabank, a subsidiary of Meta Financial Group Inc., postponed NetSpend’s IPO by a week. Last week, the Office of Thrift Supervision ordered its MetaBank to dump its iAdvance credit product after determining the bank misrepresented the product (see story).