AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) reported its latest quarterly earnings results late Thursday, amassing earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street’s guidance, while a fiscal 2018 year-over-year sales increase lifted AMC shares after hours.
The Leawood, Kansas-based cinema operator posted yearly revenue of $5.46 billion, a 7.5% gain over the $5.08 billion from the year-ago quarter. For its fourth quarter of 2018, the company brought in net income of $170.6 million following a loss in the year-ago quarter.
On an adjusted basis, AMC tallied in earnings of $1.92 per share, crushing the Wall Street consensus estimate of $1.84 per share, according to data compiled in a Yahoo Finance guidance. The movie theater business also raked in sales of $773 million for its fourth quarter, more than $15 million above the $757.58 million that analysts called for.
“AMC continued to deliver strong results in the fourth quarter of 2018, capping a record-setting full year performance, the best-ever in our 98-year history,” said Adam Aron, CEO and President of AMC.
“The tremendous momentum of the industry box office, which was the fifth record-setting year in the last seven years, combined with AMC’s transformative growth initiatives and the popularity of the new AMC Stubs A-List subscription program, drove full year global attendance to an all-time high of 359 million guests, up 6.1% in the U.S. markets, resulting in strong financial performance across the board.”
AMC stock was surging about 1.2% during regular trading hours on Thursday as the company geared up to post its results. Shares gained about 4.8% after the bell thanks to a strong 2018 in the revenue front, as well as a positive fourth quarter.
