“Shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. AMC finished Friday with their best weekly gain in four months, surging 116% for the week, in a rally that has once again astounded analysts, enriched individual investors and punished Wall Street traders betting against the company. The movie-theater chain, whose stock closed last year just above $2, finished Friday at $26.12, giving the shares a year-to-date gain of more than 1,100% and the company a market capitalization of nearly $11.8 billion. The rally marks an astounding turnaround for a company that last year was reeling from the coronavirus pandemic and trying to stave off bankruptcy.
Once again fueling this week’s rise: enthusiastic individual investors who have banded together on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum, in Discord chat rooms and in text chains with friends. Throughout the week, hashtags including #AMCSTRONG and #AMCSqueeze splashed across Twitter, with many predicting more gains ahead. The chatter helped drive $209 million of net inflows into the stock from individual investors between Monday and Thursday, according to Vanda Research’s VandaTrack, more than 15 times the amount seen during the same period of April’s final week.”
WSJ Saturday May 29, 2021
