CAVA (CAVA) on Thursday made its public debut on the New York Stock Exchange, and it looks like Wall Street investors want, at least initially, to take a big bite.
Shares of the Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant chain closed at $43.30, valuing the restaurant chain at roughly $4.8 billion. That’s almost twice what the company priced on Wednesday evening at $22 per share, which valued the company at $2.5 billion.
Cava initially sought a common stock price offering for between $17 and $19 per share, which valued Cava as a roughly $2.1 billion business; it then raised that range to $19 to $20 last Monday.
Cava’s IPO is the sixth largest on a US exchange so far this year. The largest? On May 3 J&J spinoff Kenvue (KVUE), a consumer health company, made its public debut at $4.37 billion.