The company said it completed its most recent stock offering, which it announced earlier in the day. The business offered 11.6 million shares at an average cost of $50.85 a share.
“earning an additional $587.4 million of equity on top of the $658.5 million already raised this quarter ends in a entire equity increase in the next quarter of $1.246 billion, substantially strengthening and enhancing AMC’s balance sheet, supplying valuable flexibility to respond to potential challenges and capitalize on attractive opportunities in the long run,” AMC CEO Adam Aron said in a news release.
The so-called meme inventory said from the prior filing it would use any proceeds from the sale for”general corporate purposes, which may include the repayment, refinancing, redemption or repurchase of current indebtedness, acquisition of theatre assets, working capital or capital expenditures and other investments”
The company said earlier that week it sold 8.5 million shares to investment company Mudrick Capital, which reportedly sold its position in a profit that same moment. Aron in the time characterized the stock exchange less mindless dilution, but”very wise raising of cash so that we can develop this company.”
AMC inventory was up 6.6% to $66.65 just after 2 p.m. EDT on Thursday, rebounding nearly 80 percent from its intraday low of $37.66.
That drop comes on the heels of an unbelievable run for AMC inventory on Wednesday that pushed the movie-theater series’s market capitalization above GameStop’s (GME), its peer in the meme trade. The rallies in the stocks put short sellers gambling down them big.
Shares of both companies have rallied amid increased short interest, options quantity, and excitement from retail traders.
Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director in the brief selling analytics firm S3 Partners, told Barron’s he quotes AMC’s short interest was lately at 90.87 million shares, or about 18% of shares available for trading. He pegs GameStop’s short interest at 11.31 million stocks or 19.8% of the float.
Dusaniwsky said brief sellers betting against AMC were down $2.77 billion on Wednesday alone, bringing year-to-date losses to over $5.22 billion.
Other meme stocks which surged on Wednesday were also mixed on Thursday. Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) inventory was down 27%, BlackBerry (BB) stocks proved up 1 percent, and GameStop was down 8.4%.
The current resurgence of meme stocks has once more brought mainstream attention to Wall Street. On Reddit investing forums for example WallStreetBets and AMCStock, the recent action was celebrated as a triumph for the average person. But not everyone has been so excited.
“I never would have thought it, but the recklessness of a segment of retail investors appears to have no bounds in this marketplace,” Whitney Tilson of Empire Financial Research wrote in a note Wednesday. “This type of short term rally will be expected, and for stocks like these, this can be a chance to improve a short or put position because it’s obviously a dead-cat bounce.”
David Trainer, CEO of investment research firm New Constructs, composed that AMC’s business was trending in the wrong direction ahead of the pandemic. Ever since that time, he noted that AMC has diluted existing shares via countless stock sales, adding that the stock is worthless considering its debt burden and weak earnings prospects.
“The spike in shares of AMC Entertainment is still another indication of the reckless meme stock-driven investing landscape which we find ourselves in now,” Trainer said. “Wall Street insiders are preying on the naivete of retail meme stock dealers. There is not any fundamental reason to be buying shares of AMC Entertainment.”
What’s ahead for investors is anyone’s guess. Calling a top for meme stocks was a fool’s errand this year. But the fundamentals will want to catch up to the valuation.
