3Par Sparkles in Debut

SAN FRANCISCO -- Investors eagerly bid up shares of data storage device maker 3Par (PAR Quote) in its first day of trading, underscoring their continuing interest in the evolving market for data storage products.

The company's shares were priced at $14 in their initial public offering on Friday, above the range of $11 to $13 previously expected, according to the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Shares were recently trading at $15.93.

3Par's customers include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Priceline.com (PCLN Quote) and News Corp.'s (NWS Quote) social networking Web site MySpace.com. In the fist six months of the year, the eight-year-old company's revenue jumped 39% over the same period a year earlier. 3Par, however, continues to report operating losses.

Storage companies have been a favorite of investors this year as sales of devices and components such as hard disk drives continue to grow at double-digit paces. Industry heavyweight EMC (EMC Quote), which over the summer upgraded nearly all of its major product lines, has seen its shares rise over 50% this year. Shares of Data Domain (DDUP Quote), a maker of products for data backup and recovery, have risen nearly 9.5% since their debut in June.

The industry has benefited from the increasing amount of digital photos, documents and other data-intensive files shared between businesses or posted on social networking sites such as MySpace.