AMC (AMC) reported its third-quarter results, which beat on the top and bottom line.
These are the results versus consensus estimates by Wall Street analysts, as compiled by Bloomberg.
Adjusted EPS (loss): -.44 vs -.53 estimates
Revenue: $762.2 million versus estimates of $708.3 million
The company said 40 million guests visited AMC theaters worldwide during the third quarter of 2021. Wall Street was expecting consolidated attendance of 42.8 million.
“Our quarter-ending liquidity as of September 30, 2021, of more than $1.8 billion, including cash and our undrawn revolving credit lines remains at near-record levels, and also gives us comfort,” CEO Adam Aron said in a statement.
“One can see and feel that our industry and our company are on a path of recovery and improvement,” said Aron. But he went on to say “we are not yet where we want and need to be.”
“The virus continues to be with us, we need to sell more tickets in future quarters than we did in the most recent quarter, and Adjusted EBITDA is still well below pre-pandemic levels,” he said.
AMC recently announced that domestic and international ticket sales in October were stronger than in any month since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
On Monday, AMC announced it will team with Disney “to bring four fan favorite movies back to the big screen” from November 12-14 at more than 200 theater locations in the US.
AMC has struggled to return to profitability despite big increases compared to last year’s dismal results when theater chains were forced to close during the pandemic.
In August, Aron said AMC’s theater level cash flows will turn positive in the fourth quarter of this year, assuming domestic box office ticket sales can hit $5 billion for 2021.
The theater chain has been a “meme stock” favorite this year. Retail traders have backed the stock in droves, crushing short-sellers, and sending share prices higher. AMC shares are up a staggering 1860% this year.
The stock’s upward movement has allowed the company to raise cash by selling equity. At the end of the second quarter, the company had around $1.8 billion in cash.
Aron has leaned into the enthusiasm of the “ape army,” and uses Twitter (TWTR) to communicate with the retail crowd following AMC.
Over the weekend, Aron urged investors on Twitter to tune into the company’s conference call after results are released on Monday. More than 10,000 people listened to each of the last two earnings call, according to Aron.
The theater chain is also taking steps to adopt cryptocurrencies. In the company’s last earnings call, Aron announced AMC would begin accepting Bitcoin (BTC-USD) as payment by the end of 2021.
He recently polled his Twitter followers asking if the company should also start accepting Shiba Inu (SHIB-USD), the latest meme token.
TWITTER POLL #2: As you know, you can now purchase AMC gift cards using cryptocurrency, and our IT group is writing code so that soon we can accept online payments in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Dogecoin among others. Should we strive to take Shiba Inu too?
— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) October 29, 2021
The stock’s performance is disconnected from Wall Street analysts’ predictions.
AMC (AMC) has 0 Buys, 3 Hold, 6 Sell recommendations, with an average price target of $5.44. The stock is currently trading at around $41 a share.
Earlier this month, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter downgraded the stock to Underperform, from Neutral.
The “ultimate majority of retail ownership will eventually cash out and move on,” Pachter wrote in a note to investors. The analyst kept his price target at $7.50.
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Source: finance.yahoo.com