Shares of Travelocity owner Sabre rise 7 percent in debut

(Corrects paragraph 3 to change number of outstanding shares and valuation)

April 17 (Reuters) - Shares of Sabre Corp, the owner of online travel agency Travelocity, rose as much as 7 percent in their market debut after the company sold fewer shares than expected in its initial public offering and priced them below the targeted range.

Sabre's shares rose to a high of $17.17 in early trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday after opening at $16.79.

At the high, the company had an equity value of about $4.44 billion based on the 258.7 million outstanding shares listed in its IPO filing. Underwriters have the option to buy more shares.

Texas-based Sabre raised $627.2 million from its offering of 39.2 million shares priced at $16 each, below the expected range of $18-$20.

Sabre, spun off from American Airlines' parent AMR Corp in 2000, was taken private by TPG Capital and Silver Lake Partners in 2007 for about $5 billion including debt.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith and Deutsche Bank were lead underwriters to the offering.

(Reporting By Neha Dimri in Bangalore; Editing by Ted Kerr)