Roku’s stock soars after IPO raises $219M

new york — Shares of Roku, an early player in streaming-video gadgets, soared on Thursday after its initial public offering of stock raised $219 million.

The shares priced at $14 each, the top of the company’s expected range, suggesting strong demand from investors and valuing the company at $1.3 billion. The shares rocketed to more than $21 in Thursday afternoon trading, a gain of over 50 percent.

The Los Gatos, California, company is known for its boxes and sticks that let users watch Netflix, Hulu and the growing universe of streaming-video options on their TVs. It has the biggest share of the streaminggadget market, but has deeppocketed competitors in Amazon, Google and Apple. — AP