by Fred Fuld III
In case you missed it, the stock price of AMC Entertainment (AMC), the company that owns the chain of movie theaters, doubled today. Well, OK, it was up only 95.22%, but it is up another 5.20% in after market trading, as I am writing this.
To think that you could have both AMC for $2 a share back in January, and now it is over $62.
Of course, AMC is one of the “stonks”, a stock that has a large group of traders buying the stock to take advantage of the fact that the stock is heavily shorted, creating a major short squeeze. So the substantial increase today has nothing to do with the company’s earnings, revenues, or anything else.
However, it does point out the fact that the number of American’s that have been vaccinated has been on the rise and the COVID-19 infection rate is dropping. It also means that people are more willing to get out and go to a movie theater. Especially a nice air conditioned theater during the hot summer.
Cinemark Holdings Inc. (CNK), based in Plano, Texas, operates over 500 theaters. It has a market cap of $3 billion, and is generating negative earnings. It does not pay a dividend.
The Marcus Corporation (MCS) owns theaters in 17 states with the brands Marcus Theatres, Movie Tavern by Marcus, and BistroPlex. Earnings are currently negative. It has a market cap of $710 million.
Cineworld Group PLC ( CNNWF) is a UK based company that operates such theater chains as Regal, United Artists, Edwards theatres, Cineworld, and Picturehouse. Earnings are currently negative. The market cap is $1.8 billion.
IMAX Corporation (IMAX) offers theater software and equipment to theaters. Earnings are currently negative. The stock trades at 25.7 time forward earnings, and does not pay a dividend. IMAX has a market cap of $1.3 billion.
Let’s see if any of these stocks become blockbusters.
Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.