AMC Stock gets caught short term. The shares are up 180%.

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AMC Entertainment Holdings

Trading at a new 52-week high on Wednesday, caught in a strange euphoria affecting several stocks of downtrodden companies.

The shares (ticker:

AMC

), one of the worst performers of last year, jumped 300% in the morning session and was halted several times due to extreme volatility.

AMC stock rebounded 611% despite multiple dilutive share sales by the company in recent months. The trading volume is over 54 million shares, according to FactSet. Almost 40 million shares are sold short.

AMC is currently trading around 180%, at around $ 14. Shares were up 105% last year, compared to the S&P 500’s 15.8% gain.

But AMC has spent much of the past year in the doldrums. The pandemic has forced the largest cinema operator to close locations or restrict occupancy, killing box office sales. Other cinema chains had to face the same problems.

The action joins a small group of companies that have been caught in a strange push and pull between professional short sellers, who hold bearish positions, and retail investors using the Reddit forums and Robinhood accounts to buy and encourage others to do it.

The greatest example, of course, is

GameStop

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

Bed bath and beyond

(BBBY), up 30% on Wednesday,

Blackberry

(BB), up 15%, and

Etsy

(ETSY), which is down 3%.

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

AMC has raised money to cushion it until the pandemic subsides and moviegoers return to theaters in record numbers they did as recently as 2019. This week, the company’s CEO Adam Aron said in a statement that with $ 917 million raised since mid-December, bankruptcy was on the table.

It had been considered in recent months if the company could not raise enough cash to survive.

The fact that AMC sells stocks to raise capital may make its high stock price easier to bear, said Eric Wold, analyst at B. Riley.

“While the recent move in AMC stocks has been extraordinary, we remain optimistic about the domestic box office outlook coming out of the pandemic and believe that management’s success in raising enough capital to avoid near-term bankruptcy. has clearly been positive for investors. “Said Wold Barron’s in an email. “And as AMC remains in the process of consolidating its capital structure and liquidity, we imagine that the transfer of shares is welcome for the company.

An AMC spokesperson was not immediately available.