Zillow share price more than doubles in first-day trading

[Update 1: Updates IPO pricing with first-day trading status.]

Shares of real estate site Zillow ($58.46 0%) more than doubled during its Wednesday morning launch as a publicly traded company.

The company priced its initial public offering of 3.46 million shares of common stock at $20 per share on Tuesday afternoon.

The shares began trading Wednesday morning on the NASDAQ stock exchange and hit $44 a share Wednesday morning for a gain of 120%. It rose as as high as $60 per share in morning trading before dipping back down into the $33 price range.

The price set for the IPO debut was higher than its original range of $12 to $14 share, which it raised last week to $16 to $18 per share. At $20, the shares would raise about $69.2 million before underwriting fees and expenses.

Underwriters for the IPO have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 519,300 shares of stock to cover over-allotments.

Concurrent with the completion of the initial public offering, Zillow will complete a private placement of 274,999 shares of its common stock, also at $20 per share, to certain existing investors in the Seattle-based real estate firm.

CitiGroup ($51.60 0%) is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering.  Allen & Co. LLC is acting as senior co-manager and Pacific Crest Securities, ThinkEquity LLC, and First Washington Corp. are acting as co-managers.

Zillow operates a website that provides information about homes, real estate listings and mortgages.

Write to Kerry Curry.

Follow her on Twitter @communicatorKLC.