Coding platform GitLab leaps 23% in trading debut after pricing IPO at $77 a share

• Shares of GitLab leaped 23% in their Nasdaq trading debut, a market cap of $13.48 billion.
• GitLab initially priced its IPO at $77 a share, putting its valuation at roughly $11 billion.
• The company on Thursday opened at $94.25, exceeding the target range of $66 to $69 per share it set late Wednesday.

Shares of GitLab leaped 23% in their trading debut on Thursday, giving the coding platform a market capitalization of $13.48 billion.

GitLab priced its initial public offering at $77 a share, putting its valuation at roughly $11 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its regulatory filing. The company on Thursday, trading under the ticker GTLB, opened at $94.25.

The company's largest shareholder is its co-founder and CEO Sid Sijbrandij, whose stake stands at 19%, according to the prospectus. He is followed by Khosla Ventures, which owns 14%, and then by ICONIQ, which owns 12%.

There were some doubters among Wall Street analysts following the strong debut, however.

"We believe GitLab is worth as little as $770 million or $5/share, which is 91% below the midpoint of the expected price range," David Trainer, CEO at New Constructs, said in a note. "What is most worrisome about GitLab is that it competes with some of the largest technology companies in the world."

The all-remote company - founded in 2011 by Sijbrandij and Dmitriy Zaporozhets - is best known for offering organizations a single platform to create a streamlined software workflow. Its product, called the DevOps platform, competes with Microsoft's Github.

GitLab was incorporated in Delaware in 2014 but does not have a main office, according to its filings. It has 1,350 employees across 65 countries.

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Bank of America Securities were the lead underwriters for the offering.