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Cineplex IncCGX.TOBUYAug 29, 2017Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jun 19, 2026. Market Open.
Revenue growth is coming back a bit, with lower comparables from last year helping the year-over-year figures. Its debt levels are high, with net debt of $1.9B, and a net debt/EBITDA of 6.8X. Interest costs are $137M (last 12 months) and these will likely rise a bit with higher rates. 12-month cash flow was $116M and therein lies the problem. The debt is mostly due in the next five years. With attendance back, and a decent film slate, bankruptcy is becoming less of a concern, but it is still hard to paint a really positive picture here because of the leverage.
It is somewhat cheap (0.4X forward sales), but also has a fairly high forward P/E of 20.2X. It could become a takeover target, however, we would not place a high level of probability on that at these current levels.
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Cineplex remains a recovery story, and its beta of 2.88 signals more risk than usual. It rose 10% in Q1, but the chart was choppy. So, consider Cineplex a partial buy. After all, Covid didn’t kill cinema-going, as some expected, but deferred it. We still love the big screen. Read Dark horses: Nuvei, Cineplex, Boralex for our full analysis.
They have not had bad results, but this quarter will be bad. The box office net is down about 20% quarter to date. Unless September picks up materially, they are going to have a very lousy quarter. However, Q4 looks amazing and it could be up 20%. Also, 2018 looks really good. If you judge this quarter by quarter, then you are analysing the stock wrong. They are light years ahead of their competition by diversifying into other entertainments. Within 4 years, they are looking to have 25% of their revenues in EBITDA as non-box office. This is a great deal here.