Two Years Ago, Twitter's IPO Gained 72%; Will Square Beat It?

• Shares of Twitter Inc TWTR surged 72 percent from its IPO price on its first day of trading.
• Twitter priced its IPO at $26 per share, its first trade came in at $45.10, quickly surged above the $50 mark, and closed the day at $44.90.
• Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, will see his second company debut for trading on Thursday: Square Inc SQ.

Shares of Twitter began trading for the first time on a public exchange back in November 2013. The company priced its IPO at $26 per share, but investor appetite for the social media company may have been better than expected.

Twitter's stock opened for trading at $45.10 and quickly surged above the $50 per share mark. There was some profit-taking as the stock closed the day at $44.90 – marking a 72 percent gain from the original IPO price.

Twitter was co-founded by Jack Dorsey, who is also the brains behind Square, a mobile payment processing company. On Thursday, shares of Square will begin trading for the first time ever, and investors are hoping for shares to exhibit a similar IPO fate.

Twitter's IPO momentum carried over into December and hit an all-time high $74.73. However, the stock lost momentum and traded to nearly $30 per share in May 2014. Since then, the stock has rebounded to the $50 level on two separate occasions. However, growth concerns sent the stock crashing from above $50 per share in August 2015 to an all-time low of $21.01 in August.

Ahead of Square's IPO on Thursday, Twitter's stock was trading at $26.05, marking a loss of 38.11 percent over the past year and nearly flat from its IPO pricing.

Off To A Rough Start? Square Priced Below Initial Range

Square initially priced its IPO at a range of $11 to $13, giving the company a valuation just shy of $4.2 billion. The pricing range may have been a disappointment to some as the company successfully raised $150 million last year at a $6 billion valuation.

Square officially announced on Thursday morning that it has priced its IPO at just $9 per share, representing a $2.66 billion valuation.

A poll conducted on Benzinga's Twitter account asked investors and traders if Square's IPO performance will outperform Twitter's. With nearly 150 votes collected, 70 percent of those surveyed indicated "no" while just 30 percent of respondents were bullish and expect Square to return more than 72 percent in its IPO debut.

Twitter closed its first day 72% higher than its $26 IPO price. #Square is priced at $9. Will it outperform $TWTR?

— Benzinga.com (@Benzinga) November 19, 2015