It's IPO day for J&J's Ken­vue: Stock gains 20% in first day of trad­ing as unit rais­es $3.8B

In one of the biggest health­care IPOs of the last decade, John­son & John­son’s con­sumer spin­out Ken­vue raised $3.8 bil­lion and start­ed trad­ing on the pub­lic mar­kets Thurs­day.

The shares priced at $22, J&J said in a state­ment ear­ly Thurs­day, at the up­per end of the $20 to $23 range con­tem­plat­ed in a reg­u­la­to­ry fil­ing last month. They quick­ly gained 20% in their first day on the mar­ket.

At the IPO price, Ken­vue was val­ued at $41.5 bil­lion, in­stant­ly mak­ing it one of the biggest health­care com­pa­nies in the world. In ad­di­tion to pric­ing at the high end, J&J sold about 20 mil­lion more shares than the com­pa­ny had sug­gest­ed last month in a reg­u­la­to­ry fil­ing.

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