Yelp stock jumps in first day of trading Yelp shares jumped more than 65% in the first few minutes of trading (Spencer Platt / Associated Press) By Walter Hamilton March 2, 2012, 7:39 a.m. How would Yelp users rate a popular but unprofitable website whose stock surged more than 65% in its first few minutes as a public company? That's was the position of Yelp itself Friday morning, as shares of the local-business-review site jumped dramatically following the company's initial public offering. The shares were recently selling at slightly more than $25, which is far above its $15 IPO price. Yelp surprised Wall Street by pricing its highly anticipated IPO at the higher-than-expected $15 on Thursday. That topped the expected range of $12 to $14 and pointed to heavy demand for the stock, which is the latest social-media darling to go public in the last year. Social-media companies are in the vanguard, with the most- sought-after of them all, Facebook Inc., expected to go public this spring. But the sector has been mixed overall, with the stocks of some social-media companies faltering within weeks or months of their debuts. Critics of Yelp point out that the company has never turned a profit, and that its business model could be replicated by deep-pocketed rivals. The shares rose because Yelp users rushed to buy a company with which they're familiar -- the "happy-customer effect," said Francis Gaskins, editor of IPOdesktop.com in Marina del Rey. Yelp also is getting a boost from enthusiasm among individual investors over Facebook, he said. Facebook files for initial public stock offering Yelp sets price target for initial public offering Yelp's IPO values the online-review company at $900 million