What happened
The stock market was having a decent day on Monday, with the S&P 500 modestly higher as the busiest week of earnings season gets under way. But one stock that is a big standout is real estate investment trust EPR Properties (EPR -0.10%). As of 10:35 a.m. EST, shares were up by 13% for the day.
So what
The primary reason for today's move is positive news from EPR's biggest tenant, AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC).
Image source: Getty Images.
EPR primarily owns "experiential" real estate, and movie theaters are its top property type. Out of 369 properties in its portfolio, 180 are movie theaters, making up 46% of the company's pre-COVID-19 revenue. And AMC is the top operator. Obviously, this hasn't exactly been a good thing for EPR's revenue since the pandemic hit.
Today, AMC's CEO Adam Aron announced that the company has raised $917 million of new capital since mid-December, and that "any talk of an imminent bankruptcy for AMC is completely off the table." The movie operator, which was widely expected to run out of money by early 2021, now has enough money to continue operations well into the year, buying much-needed time for the movie business to start to normalize.
Now what
In a nutshell, AMC's announcement today that bankruptcy won't be coming anytime soon is causing EPR investors to breathe a sigh of relief. While the company's business is a long way from returning to its pre-pandemic normal, this is certainly great news.
