By Andrea Hargraves 
Shares in AMC – the world’s largest movie theater chain – surged more than 120% in the Wednesday session, hitting an all-time high of $72.62, then lost some ground and ended up adding 95% to $62.55, a record closing price. .
Due to the high volatility, trading on the shares was halted twice during the session on Wall Street.
The impetus for the AMC bond was the US company’s announcement that it would reach out to its new backers through an initiative called “AMC Investor Connect”.
The company described this “investor contact” as a way to put AMC in “direct contact” with its huge base of enthusiasts and individual shareholders.
Remember, AMC is still popular with the Reddit-focused group of investors. So-called “meme stocks,” a group that includes AMC or GameStop’s gaming store chain, have seen big increases since the start of the year — with an army of small investors increasingly using money in these actions to punish the big ones. Investors who are betting on its collapse.
The chain also revealed today that it has seen its small shareholder base grow to more than 3 million owners in recent months.
“Many investors have demonstrated their support for confidence in AMC. We plan to engage more frequently with these investors and, from time to time, offer them special benefits at our cinemas,” CEO Adam Aaron said today in a statement reported by CNN.
Among these benefits will be free XL popcorn packages for investors watching the first movie of the summer in the AMC Room, and among other promotions, there will be special discounts and invites for movie previews.
Also helping to boost the shares is the fact that AMC announced yesterday that it raised $230.5 million through the sale of 8.5 million bonds to Mudrick Capital Management. However, Bloomberg stated that immediately after buying the “hedge fund” [fundo de cobertura de risco] He sold all the stocks taking advantage of the rally and made big gains.
The movie theater chain is trying to get back to normal after a bad year for the industry in which it operates. The epidemic hit theaters in particular, which had to be closed with confinement, and the release of many films had to be postponed. However, the army of Reddit supporters allowed him to gain the upper hand in the stock market.
This rise in the stock market allowed it to reach a market capitalization – currently at 29.67 billion US dollars – that no longer fit into the Russell 2000, where it was listed, as it is an indicator of listed companies with low capitalization.
(Updated at 9:04pm with prices quoted at the end of the session)