Groupon at Nasdaq
Employees and guests of Groupon ring the opening bell in celebration of the company's IPO at the Nasdaq Market in New York. The company's stock price had been sinking since the IPO, but Groupon shares jumped almost six percent Wednesday on news that holiday sales were strong. Reuters

Those who bought shares of Groupon at their initial public offering price made a nice return on their investment Friday.

Shares of Groupon rose from their $20 IPO price to close at $26.11, a 30.55 percent jump. However, the closing price was below its opening price of $28.

Trading began at approximately 10:45 a.m. Friday morning, after employees of the Chicago-based company rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

The price of Groupon shares was relatively steady throughout the day. Shares traded anywhere between $25.90 and $31.14.This is in contrast with another big web IPO this year, LinkedIn. In May, the company began trading at $45 on their first day as a public company. During the day, the stock posted a high of $122.70 before falling to $94.25 at close.

Recent IPO's haven't boomed this year. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, the 193 companies with IPO's in the last year have seen their stock price fall an average of 9.3 percent. This is while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 have gained over the past year.

The IPO raised $700 million, making it the largest IPO for an Internet company since Google raised over $1 billion in 2004. At the time of the IPO, the company had a market valuation of approximately $12.7 billion, far short of the $25 billion the company sought earlier in the year.

Contact at Samuel Weigley at s.weigley@ibtimes.com.

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