Started from a hot dog cart, now it's a billion-dollar company.
Shake Shack, the high-end fast food burger chain that serial restaurateur Danny Meyer launched from a cart more than a decade ago, climbed above $50 a share in early trading in its market debut Friday, more than doubling its IPO price and putting the company's market cap north of $1.5 billion.
The company priced its IPO at $21 a share Thursday night, well above expectations, raising $105 million and giving Shake Shack a valuation of $745.5 million at the time. The stock opened at $47 a share and quickly shot up above the $50 mark.
Shack Shack celebrated the occasion by handing out free breakfast sandwiches and burgers from a "limited-edition" food truck stationed outside the stock exchange.
Wall Street just got a whole lot tastier: presenting the New York SHACK Exchange @nyse pic.twitter.com/nytNgt9uXF— SHAKE SHACK (@shakeshack) January 30, 2015
Shake Shack has passed these out at the @NYSE. They'll light up on the first trade. $SHAK pic.twitter.com/CGIkKxXgMJ— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) January 30, 2015
The burger chain now has about 60 locations worldwide and grew revenue to just under $84 million for the first three quarters of this year, though its profit for that period fell to $3.5 million from $5.4 million a year earlier.