An Italian-owned mid-tier defense contractor hit public markets in late November, and investors appear to be quickly warming to the stock as an investment opportunity. Shares of Leonardo DRS (NASDAQ: DRS) climbed as much as 15% this week, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, following the company's merger with Israeli defense specialist RADA Electronics Industries.

Leonardo DRS has followed a long and winding journey back to public markets. The company was founded as Diagnostic/Retrieval Systems in the 1960s by researchers working on signal-processing technology for submarines and went public in 1981 as DRS Technologies. It was acquired by Italy's Finmeccania in 2008, joining forces with one of the world's 10 largest defense contractors.

Earlier this year Finmeccania, which is now known as Leonardo, announced plans to split DRS and its other U.S. operations off as an independent company via a merger with RADA Electronics. RADA was already traded publicly, and the all-stock merger called for the two companies to combine forces and adopt a new name and ticker.

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Source Fool.com