The Good News: Rosetta Stone Gains After IPO

Updated from 11:52 a.m. EDT

Rosetta Stone (RST) should be very happy (or très heureux, or muy feliz, or even molto felice) with the results from its initial price offering.

Bad jokes aside, Rosetta Stone's IPO is remarkable in that it is the first in nearly a year to price above its expected range. The language learning software provider said late Wednesday that the 6.25 million shares of common stock is it is offering priced at $18 a share, compared to the expected range of $15 to $17 a share.

Colfax (CFX) was the last IPO to price above its expected range way back on May 8. Coincidentally, Colfax shares also priced at $18 a share after the company proposed a range of $15 to $17 a share.

Rosetta Stone raised a total of $112.5 million through 3,125,000 shares of common stock. Selling stockholders are offering the remaining 3,125,000 shares in the offering. The small amount of shares offered generated a lot of investor interest, as the stock surged $7.12, or 39.5%, to close at $25.12.

Rosetta Stone's IPO also helps mark the most successful period for IPOs since August. On April 1, Chinese video game maker Changyou.com Limited (CYOU) priced its IPO at $16 a share, and only Wednesday Bridgepoint Education (BPI) shares rallied after being priced below its expected range.

In the first week of August, data hosting provider Rackspace (RAX) and Chinese ad agency China Mass Media (CMM) made their respective debuts. Both IPOs came within weeks of GT Solar International's (SOLR) and China Distance Education's (DL) initial offerings.