amc entertainment holdings inc’s firstquarter results given analysts reason for optimism regarding the movie theater industry’s recovery but most analysts believe the stock price is still way too high to recommend buying the stock amc dropped 67 in midday trading tuesday reversing an earlier gain of as much as 119 the stock has now plunged 256 amid a fourday losing streak putting it on track for a oneyear closing low amc reported latemonday a firstquarter loss that was wider than expected but revenue that rose more than fivefold to exceed forecasts as growth in admissions revenue outpaced the rise in food and beverage revenue don’t miss after 80 plunge from peak amc stock bounces back slightly as revenue beats expectations and chief executive adam aron was upbeat about the coming slate of blockbuster movies including “top gun maverick” “jurassic world dominion” “black panther wakanda forever” and “avatar 2” mkm partners analyst eric handler said the box office should improve this year and amc’s new initiatives such as the rollout of the delivery and offpremise popcorn offering are progressing however even with the trading 81 below the june 2 2021 record close of 6255 he said valuation remains “irrational” handler reiterated the sell rating and 1 stock price target he’s had on the stock since february 2021 “we remain concerned about the slowerthananticipated pace of the theatrical industry’s overall recovery most notable a 30 decrease in content volume attributed to the lack of midlevel movies” handler wrote in a note to clients “in addition specific to amc it could take many years for the company to grow into its capital structure which has seen a 400 increase in shares outstanding since the start of the pandemic along with its sizable 557 billion of debt” the increase in shares outstanding resulted from the company taking advantage of the “memestock” surge in prices to issues shares to raise money part of that kitty was used in the surprise investment in silver and gold miner hycroft mining holding corp hymc announced in march and aron indicated on the latemonday postearnings conference call with analysts that “there will be more hycrofts ahead not gold or silver mining per se” wedbush’s alicia reese reiterated the underperform rating she’s had on the stock since november 2021 but trimmed her stock price target to 4 from 5 reese expects theater attendance to “meaningfully improve” through the rest of the year but said the amc will have to contend with a road to recovery that is riddled with higher marketing spend higher concession and utility costs and higher wages reese believes the stock will continue to be volatile with an “uncertain longterm multiple” given its ownership and the possibility that at some point amc will launch its own cryptocurrency mkm’s handler and wedbush’s reese are just two of five analysts of the eight total analysts surveyed by factset who are bearish on amc there are no bulls as the other three analysts are neutral the average price target of the analysts surveyed is 576 or 51 below current levels b riley analyst eric wold is one of the neutral analysts and has the street’s highest price target at 16 while that price target now implies 37 upside from current levels and despite a “solid” firstquarter report an uncertain outlook keeps him from turning bullish “although we are increasingly positive after the upside 1q22 results we are not making any meaning changes to our 2022 or 2023…estimates after taking a slightly more cautious approach to the remainder of the year as trends continue to develop and inflationarylabor headwinds persist” wold wrote in a research note despite the stock’s plunge from its record close it was still up 199 over the past 12 months while shares of fellow meme stock gamestop corp gme have tumbled 359 and the sp 500 index spx has lost 51