Jeans-maker Levi Strauss & Co.'s shares surged in its trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

The San Francisco-based company on March 20 priced its IPO of 36,666,667 class A common shares at $17 apiece, valuing Levi Strauss at about $6.61 billion and yielding about $623.3 million for the iconic denim company. That was above the company's projected price range of between $14 and $16 per share.

Shares of the company were up 33.24% to $22.65 in afternoon trading March 21. The stock opened at $22.22.

According to CNBC, the company first went public in 1971, but the descendants of Levi Strauss took it private in 1984 when the company's profits were declining.