The inviting market waters greeted a new cruise line operator earlier this month. (NYSE: VIK) completed its initial public offering (IPO) on May 1, pricing a little more than 64 million shares in the offering at $24 apiece. Most of the stock belonged to existing stakeholders. Viking itself received the proceeds for just 11 million freshly minted shares.

The timing of Viking's arrival as a publicly traded company is solid. Leading cruise line Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) has seen its stock nearly double since the start of last year, and its peers are also trouncing the market.

Viking's first few weeks on the market have been a success. The river cruise specialist has traded as low as $25.71, hitting a high of $30.23 on Wednesday. Avoiding the obstacle of being a broken IPO out of the dock is a good start, but let's go from potholes to portholes and take a look at why more investors should be paying attention to Viking.

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Source Fool.com