The stock was trading at $22.73 after the company backed by Blackstone Group LP raised $580 million in its initial public offering.
Pinnacle Foods shares priced at $20, at the top of their expected range of $18 to $20. The IPO values the company at around $2.3 billion.
The Pinnacle Foods IPO is just the latest in a string of public offerings from private equity-backed companies this year as financial sponsors try to sell investments made during the buyout boom of 2006 to 2007.
Parsippany, New Jersey-based Pinnacle Foods, which Blackstone acquired in April 2007, manufactures branded food products in North America and had net sales of $2.5 billion in fiscal 2012.
Besides Pinnacle, other private equity-backed companies that have gone public this quarter include child care operator Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc, backed by Bain Capital; cruise line operator Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd , backed by Apollo Global Management LLC and TPG; and communications technology company West Corp, backed by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Quadrangle Group.
Other private-equity backed companies lining up go to public later this year include eye care company Bausch & Lomb, technology products retailer CDW Corp, theme park operator Sea World Parks and Entertainment, and testing services company Quintiles Transnational Corp.
Shares of sponsor-backed U.S. IPOs are up 20.5 percent this year, compared with a 14.1 percent rise for all new issues, according to market data firm Ipreo.
Pinnacle Foods is the only major U.S. IPO to price this week as the first quarter draws to a close. U.S. IPO volume rose 65.2 percent to $8.5 billion during the quarter from a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Barclays and BofA Merrill Lynch are lead underwriters of the Pinnacle Foods offering.
