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Travelers Property Casualty Corp. (Travelers) coasted along smoothly today during its first day of public trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Late Thursday, March 21, Travelers sold 210 million shares of common stock at $18.50 each netting around $3.88 billion. The Travelers initial public offering (IPO) was the biggest in U.S. insurance history and the largest this year for NYSE.

The company’s new stock, listed as TAP.A on NYSE, closed the day at a price of $19.56.

Some investors said the stock was a good buy but others felt the IPO was too high. The original price of $18.50 was approximately 1.9 times the company’s book value.

Marlene Ibsen, a spokesperson for Travelers, told adjustercom.com that executives and other employees of the company were not available for comment because of a 40-day “quiet period” imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Concurrent with the public offering, Travelers provided 30-year subordinated bonds with a coupon of 4.5 percent that were convertible into Travelers shares at $23.13. That offering raised $850 million.

Travelers is a unit of Citigroup Inc., the world’s No. 1 financial services firm. Salomon Smith Barney, Citigroup’s investment banking unit, is the bookrunning manager for both of the offerings made today.

Insurance stocks are experiencing a boom since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Standard & Poor’s (S&P) insurance index (.GSPINPC) rose 6.5 percent this year while the S&P 500 (.SPX) rose just 0.5 percent. Despite the upward trend, Citigroup decided to spin off Travelers because it was volatile and its growth was slow. Citigroup’s stock closed down 0.24 today at $49.84.

Other underwriters for the IPO include, Credit Suisse First Boston, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

Ibsen could not say how the IPO would affect the insurance giant’s employees, including claims adjusters, but adjustercom.com will check back in with Travelers after the 40-day “quiet period” has ended.