Topic: How To Invest

Q: Pat: I would like to know if it is time to sell Cineplex. I have held it for a while and the stock has done well for me, but is it time to move on given the current trend? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: Cineplex Inc., $39.35, symbol CGX on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 63.5 million; Market cap: $2.5 billion, www.cineplex.com), is the dominant movie theatre operator in Canada and the fourth largest in North America. The company owns or has interests in 164 theatres containing 1,677 screens. Cineplex shares have dropped 22% over the last month. That mirrors the price drops of major U.S. operators including AMC (down 33%) and National CineMedia (down 20%). Theatre operators are highly dependent on the popularity of the current crop of Hollywood productions, and they need healthy ticket sales to cover the high cost of showing these films. In fact, they make a sizable part of their profit from refreshment sales. A season of unsuccessful films can significantly hurt their results for the year. This summer, hit movies were almost non-existent. Even though Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 delivered strong results, the number of box-office failures easily outshone the successes. Among the failures, Tom Cruise’s The Mummy and…