Vans Stock Soars 13% to 3-Year High

Vans Inc. shares rose 13% Thursday, closing at the stock’s highest price in more than three years, on expectations of strong revenue from its expanding snowboard boot business.

Shares of the maker of casual and athletic footwear rose $1.625 to $14.25, the highest level since Nov. 30, 1992. More than 890,000 shares changed hands, four times the average daily volume during the last three months.

Analyst Shelly Young of Hambrecht & Quist said in a report that interest in the company’s snowboard boots was high at the Ski, Snowboard and Outdoor Sport Show in Las Vegas this week. Young, who reiterated her “buy” recommendation for Vans’s shares, said she expects the company’s snowboard boot revenue to double to $15 million in the fiscal year ending April 30, 1997.