AMC Entertainment’s stock price jumped about 2% in early-morning trading on Tuesday, after the nation’s largest cinema chain said it was scrapping plans to ask its shareholders to approve issuing new shares.
The company, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said it had withdrawn its proposal to have shareholders approve another 25 million shares during an upcoming shareholder meeting. CEO Adam Aron also mentioned the decision on Twitter, saying he personally felt it was “no secret” AMC should issue more shares, but that the company wouldn’t move forward with the proposal. Aron added the company wouldn’t vote on issuing more shares for the rest of 2021.
AMC has been at the center of the Reddit “meme stock” movement this year, with investors pushing the company from about $2 per share at the start of 2021 to $53 on Tuesday morning. (You can read about the crazy gains some novice AMC investors have made here.) Since Jan. 1, the company’s share price is up 2,526%.
AMC has already issued more shares this year on a few occasions to help raise capital, pay off debt and fund potential acquisitions. Most recently, AMC completed a stock offering in June that helped the company raise $587.4 million; overall, AMC raised more than $1.2 billion during the second quarter.
