AMC inventory is captured in short press. Shares rise 180%.

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AMC Entertainment Holdings

trades Wednesday at a new 52-week high, caught in a strange euphoria that affects several shares of derogatory companies.

The shares (ticker:

AMC

), which performed the worst in the past year, jumped to 300% in morning trading and was discontinued several times due to extreme volatility.

The AMC share returned 611% despite the company’s sales over the past few months. According to FactSet, the trading volume is more than 54 million shares. Nearly 40 million shares are sold short.

AMC is currently trading at around 180% at around $ 14. The stock has risen 105% over the past year, compared to the 15.8% increase in the S&P 500.

But AMC has spent much of the past year in the boring time. The pandemic forced the largest movie theater operator to close locations or limit occupancy, and ticket sales were stagnant. Other movie theater chains had to go through the same expenses.

The stock joins a small group of companies caught in a strange push and pull between professional short sellers, who own positions, and retail investors who use Reddit forums and Robinhood accounts to buy and encourage others to do.

The biggest example is of course

GameStop

(GME), the video game retailer whose shares rose above $ 350.

Bed bath and beyond

(BBBY), with 30% on Wednesday,

Blackberry

(BB), by 15% higher, and

Etsy

(ETSY), which is 3% lower.

The boom in trading, according to MarketWatch, disrupted several online brokers on Wednesday.

AMC has raised cash to quell it until the pandemic pops up and moviegoers return to theaters in the record numbers they did as recently as 2019. Adam Aron, chief executive of the company, said in a statement this week that $ 917 million raised since mid-December was a bankruptcy off the table.

Over the past few months, it has been considered if the company could not raise enough cash to survive.

The fact that AMC sold shares to raise capital could more easily carry its increased share price, said Eric Wold, analyst at B. Riley.

“Although the recent shift in AMC shares was extraordinary, we remain positive about the prospect for the domestic box office emerging from the pandemic, and believe in the management’s success in raising enough capital to avoid a short-term bankruptcy,” was clearly positive for investors. , ”Het Wold tells Barron’s in an email. “And since AMC is sharpening its capital structure and liquidity, we can think that the move in the shares is welcome for the company.”

An AMC spokesman was not immediately available.