Burlington has blowout first day

Shares of Burlington Stores surged more than 40% in their first day of trading as the company executed an initial public offering on Wednesday.

The retailer operates 503 stores primarily under the name Burlington Coat Factory and sold 13.3 million shares that were priced at $17, slightly above an earlier range of $14 to $16. The limited number of shares contributed to strong demand and at the open the stock price popped more than 40% and closed at $25.13.

Proceeds from the sale were estimated to total roughly $205 million which the company planned to use to repay debt.

The offering followed a strong financial showing by the companyduring the first half of the year with sales up 9.9% to slightly more than $2 billion and same store sales up 5.5%. Net income on an adjusted basis for the six month period totaled $3 million, versus a loss during the comparable period the prior year of $21.1 million.