Buy Amc

AMC is the largest movie exhibition company in the United States, the largest in Europe and the largest throughout the world with approximately 950 theatres and 10,500 screens across the globe. AMC has propelled innovation in the exhibition industry by: deploying its Signature power-recliner seats; delivering enhanced food and beverage choices; generating greater guest engagement through its loyalty and subscription programs, web site and mobile apps; offering premium large format experiences and playing a wide variety of content including the latest Hollywood releases and independent programming. For more information, visit amctheatres.com.

buy amc

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Embattled movie theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC -2.91%) remains a popular stock with traders, even if most of the air has come out of the balloon stemming from the epic short squeeze of 2021. Today, the stock is down 90% from the peak of its glory years.

The stock has fallen enough that it's within shouting distance of pre-COVID-19 valuations, and investors can have a real conversation about buying the stock as a long-term investment. That answer depends on the company's ability to turn a profit. Unfortunately, there are some roadblocks to that happening soon.

A survey by Morning Consult earlier this year indicated that 62% of respondents felt comfortable enough to attend a movie in a theater, a sign that people are moving past the pandemic. Still, 55% said they are more interested in watching movies from their homes, and 50% blamed high prices as a reason to avoid theaters. In other words, theaters aren't delivering an experience that justifies the effort and money.

This is showing up in AMC's numbers. Attendance for the first six months of 2022 totaled 98.2 million, down from 176.7 million in 2019. That's a 44% drop in attendance from pre-pandemic levels. You can see below that this isn't enough traffic to run the company profitably; operating cash flow is negative, and free cash flow, which includes interest on debt and cash investments into theaters, is worse:

Investors should closely follow theater attendance over the coming quarters, which likely must be at least comparable to pre-pandemic levels for AMC to generate cash flow over the long term. The company has $1.1 billion in available liquidity (cash plus open credit lines), so it does have time to right the ship.

AMC's long-term survival doesn't necessarily mean it will be a rewarding investment for shareholders. On a positive note, the stock's sky-high valuation after its short squeeze has largely dissipated. Today, its enterprise value, which is its market cap plus its net debt, is still 37% higher than three years ago (pre-pandemic), but it's well off the 400% bump it saw during its squeeze. AMC's current struggle makes that valuation virtually impossible to justify.

Management issued many shares to raise cash during the pandemic, which remains the most significant concern for shareholders today. The company's share count increased nearly 400% over the past three years, decreasing the value of existing shares, which is called dilution. AMC's business could grow as a whole, but investors won't benefit if all of these new shares flooding the market negate any per-share improvement.

In August, AMC issued a special dividend, giving shareholders one unit of AMC Preferred Equity for each common share. Last month, it filed paperwork to sell up to another 425 million of these preferred equity units. Management can convert the preferred units into common shares if the board authorizes and shareholders approve with a vote.

The problem for shareholders is that this results in potentially massive dilution down the road. Converting these preferred units to common stock could increase the existing share count by nearly threefold, which would likely kill per-share investment returns barring a remarkable recovery by AMC's business.

The purpose of these preferred units is to keep access to funding should the company need it, a reminder that AMC will do what it must to stay in business. Until its financials improve to the point that massive dilution is off the table, owning the stock is risky, even after its 90% decline.

I had originally thought that a lot of the meme stocks would suffer catastrophic losses in a market downturn. But currently, legitimate high-growth tech stocks have just been as badly hit, or even worse. Maybe there is some value in AMC stock after all.

A recent purchase of AMC shares by Bridgewater Associates might be a clue that there could be some value in the stock. Bridgewater Associates is headed by the legendary investor Ray Dalio.

The firm cashed out of its Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares and built a new position in AMC stock. Bridgewater purchased about 27,100 shares of the Reddit favorite stock for a position worth about $667,000.

In an interesting twist, it turns out that AMC did not actually pay for the shares, but received them for free as part of some agreement. A Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) statement by company Chief Executive Officer Adam Aron clarified that those shares were granted because the company grew its theatre count in 2021.

Only time will tell if that is the case. AMC is and has always been a high-risk stock. Given that it broke its latest support of $13.50, the risks are especially high that the stock could start going into a downward spiral. For investors that want to speculate a bit on AMC stock, follow Dalio and start small.

On the date of publication, Joseph Nograles did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Looking for a versatile Tee to wear before and after your session on the tennis court? Our AMC classic fit Graphic Print Lifestyle Tee ticks all the boxes. The fresh and bold graphic adds a pop of colour, while the high-quality fabric ensures optimum comfort all day long.

AMC+ is a new premium streaming bundle that includes the best of AMC, BBC America, IFC, and Sundance TV - with full access to Shudder, Sundance Now, and IFC Films Unlimited. Thousands of hours of incredible content, on demand, all in one place, with new shows and movies added every week.

AMC has propelled innovation in the theatrical exhibition industry and continues today by delivering more comfort and convenience, enhanced food & beverage, greater engagement and loyalty, premium sight & sound, and targeted programming.

Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.

A few months after AMC Theatres started accepting crypto payments, you can use its app to buy movie tickets using Dogecoin, Shiba Inu tokens and other virtual currencies. CEO Adam Aron said the app is using Bitpay to process cryptocurrency payments, which are only accepted in the US for now. You can also buy tickets with Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and an old-fashioned thing called a credit card.

It seems customers have embraced AMC's adoption of cryptocurrency. Very soon after AMC enabled crypto payments on the web, they accounted for 14 percent of online transactions. So, if you happen to have some Dogecoin that's been languishing in your wallet since someone gave it to you as a joke in 2014, you can grab your phone and put your coins to use by booking a ticket for a movie over this long weekend.

In this article I explain why I've taken a speculative long position in AMC Preferred Equity Units (APE). I'll also discuss a possible pair trade that in theory should be less risky than an outright long position in APE.

In order to achieve net positive operating cash flows and long-term profitability, the Company believes that box office revenues will need to increase significantly compared to 2021 and the combined first and second quarter of 2022 to levels in line with pre COVID-19 box office revenues. The Company believes the global re-opening of its theatres, the anticipated volume of titles available for theatrical release, and the anticipated broad appeal of many of those titles will support increased attendance levels. The Company believes that recent attendance levels are positive signs of continued demand for the moviegoing experience. For the six months ended June 30, 2022 attendance was 98.2 million patrons, a 69.3 million patron increase from the approximately 28.9 million patrons for the six months ended June 30, 2021

Cineworld/Regal just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for its theatres in the U.S. and U.K. Fortunately, AMC is in a very, very different situation - because retail investors embraced us and let us raise boatloads of cash. Thank you to retail! You really did save AMC.

Regular shares in AMC have also had a rough go of it after the giant and temporary Reddit-fueled meme-stock bounce in mid-2021. AMC proper is down 83 percent this year, currently trading just north of $5 per share.

This stock may move very much during the day (volatility) and with a very large prediction interval from the Bollinger Band this stock is considered to be "very high risk". During the last day, the stock moved $0.378 between high and low, or 7.83%. For the last week, the stock has had daily average volatility of 9.83%. 041b061a72