National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:NCMI) currently trades at $13.96 which is about -4.77% lower than the 52-week high of $16.10. The trading volume at ready counter moved to 1.10M shares as compared to 312,919.00 shares average traded volume. The stock failed to get pushed above the $14.37 barrier, the intraday high, after opening at $14.22. Analysts have a consensus target price of $17.26 in the 12-month period. Its market capitalization has now reached to $881.34M.
National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:NCMI) was dropped to Underweight from Equal Weight at Barclays. It has earned a consensus Strong buy rating, according to Zacks Investment Research. No analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, 1 has assigned a hold rating, Zero says it’s a buy and 6 have assigned a strong buy rating to the company.
National CineMedia, Inc. (NCMI) on December 21, 2016 announced a proposed settlement with AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., which, if finalized, will enable AMC to complete its acquisition of Carmike Cinemas. AMC is a founding member of National CineMedia, LLC (“NCM LLC”).
Under the terms of the proposed settlement, which are set forth in a proposed final judgment filed in federal court in Washington, DC, and summarized in a press release issued earlier by the DOJ, AMC must take certain actions to enable it to complete its acquisition of Carmike Cinemas, including divest, by February 18, 2017, movie theatres (and certain related assets) in the 15 local markets where AMC and Carmike are direct competitors to one or more acquirers acceptable to the DOJ; establish firewalls to ensure that it does not obtain NCM’s, Screenvision’s, or other movie exhibitors’ competitively sensitive information; relinquish its seats on NCM’s Board of Directors and all other NCM governance rights; and transfer, by February 18, 2017, 24 theaters comprising 384 screens (which represents less than 2% of NCM’s total network) to the Screenvision network (theaters include five Sundance Cinemas that currently do not have advertising and an additional 19 other AMC theaters). The proposed settlement agreement also requires AMC to divest the majority of its equity interests in NCMI and NCM LLC (together, “NCM”) so that by June 20, 2019, it owns no more than 4.99 percent of NCM’s outstanding equity interests per the following schedule: on or before December 20, 2017, AMC must own no more than 15% of NCM’s outstanding equity interests; on or before December 20, 2018, AMC must own no more than 7.5% of NCM’s outstanding equity interests; and on or before June 20, 2019, AMC must own no more than 4.99% of NCM’s outstanding equity interests.
In addition, in accordance with the terms of the proposed settlement, effective, December 20, 2016, Craig R. Ramsey, executive vice president and chief financial officer of AMC Entertainment Inc., resigned his position as a member of the Board of Directors of National CineMedia, Inc.
Andy England, CEO of National CineMedia (NCM), noted, “It is business as usual here at NCM. We continue to operate under our governing documents with AMC, and we look forward to benefiting from the future growth of the larger AMC/Carmike entity under our long-term Exhibitor Services Agreement (ESA) as new theaters are built or acquired. As AMC CEO Adam Aron mentioned earlier on the AMC investor call, AMC will be working closely with NCM to astutely manage this transition over the coming months in a way that preserves value for both NCM and AMC. To that end, in anticipation of an agreement between AMC and the DOJ, NCM’s Board of Directors had previously established a committee of independent Directors tasked with evaluating any proposals made by AMC to ensure that all agreements reached are in the best interest of NCM shareholders.”