Helios and Matheson drops after increasing stake in MoviePass

Shares of information technology services company Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY) are down almost 6% in Friday afternoon trading after the company announced earlier in the day that it increased its stake in MoviePass' common stock to approximately 78%. Helios said in a statement that "These cash advances to MoviePass were used to support MoviePass' working capital and operational requirements, as well as to support the expansion of MoviePass' business plans and objectives. The total amount advanced by Helios to MoviePass during this period totaled $45.53M." MOVIEPASS: MoviePass is a subscription service that allows subscribers to watch as many movies as they want in the theater -- up to one per day -- for $10 a month. On February 8, MoviePass announced that it exceeded 2M subscribers less than one month after announcing its milestone of 1.5M subscribers. FINANCES: Due to MoviePass subsidizing the cost of subscribers tickets -- as it pays most theaters full price for tickets -- it has "has incurred losses since its inception" and its future is in "substantial doubt," according to Helios and Matheson. Bloomberg Technology's Eric Newcomer said of the service, "What the movie theater business may soon realize is that this is a real, exciting attempt at disruption. And it could actually work -- if MoviePass doesn't run out of money in the process." MoviePass sees a path to profitability by a combination of selling subscriber data, using its network to get discount theater tickets, and taking a cut of theater concessions. FIGHT WITH AMC: AMC Entertainment (AMC) CEO Adam Aron said in late 2017, "AMC has absolutely no intention, I repeat no intention, of sharing any -- I repeat, any, of our admissions revenue or our concessions revenue with MoviePass." According to Deadline, citing MoviePass insiders, MoviePass sends $2M per week to AMC theaters, and is looking for a $3 per ticket cut from AMC plus 20% in concessions. In January, MoviePass cut 10 of the busiest AMC locations off from its service. ANALYST TAKE: On January 29, after MoviePass announced it cut off the high profile AMC locations, Maxim analyst Brian Kinstlinger said at the time, "While there may be some subscriber churn related to this move, we expect it to be minimal given the value of [MoviePass]." He reiterated a Buy rating and $25 price target on Helios and Matheson shares. PRICE ACTION: Helios and Matheson is down 5.9% to $4.76 in afternoon trading.