A Yield to Caution

Article Excerpt

CINEPLEX INC. $39 (Toronto symbol CGX; Shares outstanding: 63.5 million; Market cap: $2.5 billion; Dividend yield: 4.3%; www.cineplex. com) is Canada’s biggest cinema operator and the fourth largest in North America. The company pays a monthly dividend of $0.14 a share for a high 4.3% yield. 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 profits from refreshment sales. A season of unsuccessful films can significantly hurt their results for the year. Cineplex’s shares dropped sharply in August 2017. That’s because hit movies were almost non-existent this summer. Without blockbusters, the company’s box-office revenue falls, along with sales of popcorn and drinks at the concession stand. The number of big-budget failures this year seems like an anomaly. In the longer term, however, cinemas face rising competition as more consumers shift to watching movies at…