AMC takes aim at massive debt burden with ‘APE’ special dividend.

$AMC Entertainment(AMC.US)$
AMC took Wall Street by surprise with the announcement of its “APE” special dividend after market close on Thursday.

This, of course, is a company that is no stranger to bold moves, as evidenced by the movie theater chain’s $27.9 million investment in gold and silver miner HYMC. HYMC $Hycroft Mining(HYMC.US)$ earlier this year. The dividend also marks the latest move in a fight over stock issuances.

The AMC Preferred Equity Units will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “APE,” a nod to the investors who turned the company into a meme stock, who often refer to themselves as “apes” or “ape nation.”

The special dividend is the latest stage in a journey that took AMC Entertainment AMC, +18.86% from beleaguered pandemic victim to meme-stock phenomenon. AMC’s meme stock status sent the company’s shares skyrocketing last year, before coming back to earth.

AMC shares closed at a record $62.55 on June 2, 2021, following a more than six-fold rally in two weeks. With the stock down 7.2% in morning trading Friday, it was trading 72.3% below that record close.

While AMC remains a cause célèbre for a vocal community of individual investors, the company’s financial health is a cause for concern, according to data from RapidRatings, a company that assesses the finances of public and private companies.