Shares of the movie-theater chain and original meme stock have climbed three of the past four days
Shares of movie-theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. have climbed three of the past four days.
Shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. resumed their rally Friday, climbing 8.2% to register the movie-theater chain and original meme stock’s highest close since March.
The stock ended the session at $3.16 per share, its highest close since March 28, 2024, when it closed at $3.72, Dow Jones Market Data show. AMC shares, which hit a series of record lows earlier this year, are up three of the past four days.
On Wednesday, the company’s stock registered its best two-day streak since October on no apparent news, but pulled back to end Thursday’s session down 2%. On Thursday, analyst firm Wedbush Securities lowered its price target for AMC but said that it is well positioned to grow its market share. Wedbush analyst Alicia Reese pointed to the company’s footprint of large-format screens and the current vogue for concert movies.
Short interest as a percentage of AMC’s public float of shares is 16.06%, according to the latest exchange data. The stock traded on volume of 28.48 million shares Friday, compared with its 65-day average of 14.92 million shares.
AMC shares have been trading well below their all-time closing high of $44.56, which occurred on June 2, 2021, during the meme-stock frenzy, according to Dow Jones Market Data. While identifying the opportunities for AMC, Wedbush acknowledged the scale of the movie-theater chain’s debt burden.
“The company’s heavy debt load and lack of dividends overshadow these positive factors, but AMC is focused on alleviating its debt,” Reese wrote in Thursday’s note. “AMC raised over $865 million from equity sales in 2023, and opened the valve for substantially more share issuance to raise capital in 2024 and beyond.” Reese added, however, that “AMC’s shareholders continue to resist AMC’s share repurchases.”