Zoetis trades above $26 IPO during first hours on NYSE

The public offering for Pfizer Inc. spinoff Zoetis, priced at $26 a share, positions the animal health company to raise an estimated $2.2 billion from its 86.1 million shares. Zoetis, represented as “ZTS,” began trading on the New York Stock Exchange Feb. 1 with shares rising as high as $31.74, trading up 18 percent at $30.77 in the first hour of trading.

“With the Zoetis initial public offering, we are creating the largest standalone company fully devoted to animal health medicines and vaccines,” said Ian Read, chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer, in a company release Friday morning. “For Pfizer, we are better positioned to focus on our core business as an innovative biopharmaceutical company by unlocking value from the animal health business that will return value to Pfizer shareholders.”

According to Reuters, the $2.2 billion Zoetis public offering became the largest IPO from a U.S. company since Facebook raised $16 billion in May 2012. Zoetis is now valued at approximately $13 billion.

The Friday release from Pfizer goes on to describe Zoetis as a business that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets veterinary vaccines and medicines for livestock and companion animals. Pfizer announced in 2012 that it would pursue an initial public offering of a minority ownership stake in its animal health business unit as part of its long-term strategy to focus on the company’s core biopharmaceuticals business.

Serving health needs across eight animal species, including farm animals such as cattle, pigs, poultry, sheep and fish, and companion animals such as dogs, cats and horses, Zoetis’s portfolio of more than 300 product lines spans five categories: vaccines, parasiticides, anti-infectives, medicated feed additives and other pharmaceuticals for veterinarians and livestock producers.