AMC Entertainment Holdings stock was mostly quiet in extended trading Monday following an 8% jump in regular trading. The theater firm and Reddit trader favorite reported a slimmer-than-expected third-quarter net loss.
$AMC Entertainment(AMC.US)$ posted a third-quarter net loss of $224.2 million, or 44 cents a share. Revenue surged 539% year over year to $763.2 million. Wall Street's consensus estimate called for a net loss of 53 cents a share and sales of $708.2 million, according to FactSet.
On an earnings call, AMC CEO Adam Aron addressed the company's individual investors directly and took some questions submitted online. AMC stock surged in 2021 amid an influx of interest from users on Reddit buying the stock and banding together on social media to try and thwart hedge funds and Wall Street insiders who were betting against it.
Thanks to an increasingly appealing film slate, rising Covid-19 vaccination counts, our commitment to robust health and safety protocols and our own greatly increased marketing activity, AMC's theatres in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East safely welcomed back 40 million guests during the third quarter of 2021.
These guests generated significant revenue per patron growth, which when combined with our cost control efforts, generated financial results that were well ahead of market expectations."
-Aron said in the earnings release.
Aron said results were strong so far in the fourth quarter, which included October theater admissions that were the highest of any month since before the pandemic began.
The company ended the third quarter with $1.8 billion in liquidity, including cash and undrawn revolving credit lines. Aron said he does not anticipate the company will borrow under those lines of credit in the next 12 months. Still, Aron emphasized that the company still faces challenges.
Our financial results continue to improve. More and more major films are on the docket for release in the remainder of 2021, and throughout 2022. One can see and feel that our industry and our company are on a path of recovery and improvement."
-Aron added.
Still, Aron said the company is not yet where he wants it to be, but feels the company is making considerable progress.
"We wish to emphasize that no one should have any illusions that there is not more challenge ahead of us still to be met.
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 [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization] is still well below pre-pandemic levels."
-Aron added.
During the earnings call, Aron confirmed that AMC is exploring whether it is feasible to launch its own cryptocurrency. He also said the company is in conversations with movie studios about the potential of commemorative non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
Write to Connor Smith at connor.smith@barrons.com