04:18 PM EDT, 03/21/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Reddit ( RDDT ) shares soared in their trading debut on Wall Street Thursday after the social media site known as the incubator of the meme-stock craze priced its initial public offering at the high end of the expected range.

Reddit ( RDDT ) opened trade at $47 on the New York Stock Exchange, higher than the IPO price of $34 apiece. The IPO price, which reflected the top end of an expected $31 to $34 range, leads the company and its shareholders to raise about $748 million.

The shares jumped to an intraday high of $57.80, marking a 70% surge from the $34 price and contributing to a splashy debut in what's been a lackluster IPO market in recent years. The stock closed 48% higher at $50.44 on Thursday.

Reddit ( RDDT ), in a Wednesday regulatory filing, said it was offering 22 million shares, with 15.3 million shares to be sold by the company, while another 6.7 million shares would be offered by certain stockholders. The company said in the filing it anticipated having nearly 159 million shares outstanding following the IPO, or 162.3 million shares assuming underwriters purchase an additional 3.3 million shares.

The debut gives market players a shot at owning a slice of what Reddit ( RDDT ) calls a "global, digital city," featuring 100,000 active communities. In the three months ended December 2023, an average of 73.1 million daily active users came together on Reddit ( RDDT ), according to the filing. Reddit ( RDDT ) said users have a "deep sense of ownership over the communities" they create on Reddit ( RDDT ).

Among the most well-known of the communities is WallStreetBets, whose message-board users encouraged each other to take on hedge funds who held short positions in companies including GameStop (GME) and AMC (AMC), driving up their stock prices to all-time highs in 2021.

The forum-based website and app, founded in 2005, reported net income of $18.5 million for the quarter through Dec. 31. It swung from a loss of $22.2 million a year earlier. Revenue was $249.8 million, up from $200.4 million in the 2022 quarter.

"We made a profit in the back half of 2023. We grew revenue three times as fast as costs last year," Reddit ( RDDT ) Chief Executive Steve Huffman told CNBC in an interview ahead of the market debut Thursday. "This is truly, I think, a special company and profitability ... it's an important milestone for us and we're getting closer and closer."

Price: 49.95, Change: +15.95, Percent Change: +46.91