AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) stock saw a 5% pop in after-hours trading on the day it released its fiscal first-quarter 2020 earnings report, which featured deep and scarring red numbers.
The company suffered a near-complete decimation of its business during the quarter. This, naturally, was due to the coronavirus pandemic, which ground its operations to a near-standstill toward the end of the quarter ended March 31.
Image source: AMC Entertainment Holdings.
This shook out in a nearly 22% year-over-year drop in revenue, to $941.5 million for the quarter. That was on the back of a 24% decline in theater attendance. Net loss, however, deepened considerably. It came in at almost $2.2 billion, from the year-ago shortfall of $130.2 million. On a non-GAAP (adjusted) basis, AMC's net loss was nearly $232 million ($2.22 per share), from the Q1 2019 loss of $102 million.
Neither headline figure came close to hitting the average analyst estimate. Collectively, the prognosticators following the stock were anticipating $951.4 million in revenue and an adjusted per-share loss of only $1.52.
Investors might have been cheered by AMC's pronouncement, made during the conference call discussing the results, that it aims to have nearly all its theaters around the world open by late July. This will, of course, depend on mandates from authorities in each of the company's markets; it is by no means assured that they will be fully on board with such plans.
AMC's zippy after-hours performance was sharply contrasted by its 7.1% drop during the trading day. That was a steeper fall than that suffered by many consumer goods stocks, as well as the main equity indexes.
