Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, cable television brands operator AMC Networks (AMCX 0.38%) has received a distressing two-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at AMC and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

AMC facts

Headquarters (founded)

New York (1980)

Market Cap

$3.4 billion

Industry

Cable and satellite

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$1.3 billion

Management

CEO Joshua Sapan (since 2011)
CFO Sean Sullivan (since 2011)

Trailing-12-Month Return on Capital

18.4%

Cash/Debt

$307.8 million / $2.3 billion

Competitors

A&E Television Networks
Home Box Office

Turner Broadcasting System

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 26% of the 27 members who have rated AMC believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward.

This past summer, one of those bears, fellow Fool Nathan Alderman (TMFNato), succinctly summed up the underperform case for our community:

It's run by a self-serving family that stuffs the board with relatives (all collecting paychecks for their directorship) and has an iron grip on 75% of the voting power. And the whole company seems to have been spun off only to unload a pile of debt from parent Cablevision onto the new company. AMC freely admits that it can't possibly repay that debt, which is practically a big, blinking sign to shareholders: WE WILL DILUTE YOU. Plus, its efforts to create new hit shows like Mad Men and The Walking Dead have thus far not borne fruit, and it's nickel-and-diming the hit shows it does have. Bad, bad moves from a bad, bad company.

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