Shares of PVR Inox, the country’s largest multiplex operator, jumped 4.2% in intraday trade on Thursday, August 7, to hit a 2-month high of ₹1,085 apiece, despite the Indian stock market seeing a sharp slump.
The rally followed the company’s strong June-quarter results, driven by improved performance from Bollywood and a rebound in Hollywood collections, which helped it narrow losses to ₹54.5 crore in Q1FY26 from ₹179 crore in the same quarter last year.
Its consolidated revenue from operations in Q1 stood at ₹1,469 crore, compared to ₹1,190 crore a year earlier. Along with strong ticketing revenue, the company also recorded its highest-ever food and beverage (F&B) spend per head at ₹148, marking a 10% year-on-year (YoY) growth.
This contributed to an overall revenue growth of ₹490 crore, a 22% YoY increase. Ticketing revenue rose 23% YoY to ₹730 crore, while advertising revenue jumped 17% YoY to ₹101 crore.
In the first quarter, the company reported a 12% YoY rise in patron footfall, with 34 million moviegoers visiting its cinemas. As of now, PVR Inox operates 353 cinemas with 1,745 screens across 111 cities.
The company said that during the quarter, Hindi and Hollywood films led the charge. “The underlying strength of the content was evident,” it noted, “with 10 films crossing the ₹100 crore mark, including three that surpassed ₹200 crore—reflecting a consistently performing slate across languages.”
Looking ahead, the company expects strong footfalls and occupancy in the coming quarters, supported by a pipeline that includes War 2, Coolie, and Jolly LLB in Bollywood, as well as Avatar and Conjuring in Hollywood.
According to analysts, Q2 performance so far has been robust, aided by the success of Saiyaara, Superman, and Jurassic. Management expressed confidence that FY26 occupancies and admissions will surpass FY24 levels (151 million admits).
Q1 results impress, but is it time to buy PVR Inox stock?
Domestic brokerage firm JM Financial has raised its consolidated revenue estimate by 2.8%–5.7% FY26–28E, driven by improved ticketing, F&B, and other operating income.
However, it has cut its Pre-Ind AS EBITDA margin estimates by 180–220 bps for the same period due to a 365–390 bps rise in other expenditure (as a % of revenue), including movie distribution and print costs. Despite the EBITDA downgrade, PAT estimates have been raised by 3%-4% over FY26-28E, aided by lower aided by lower depreciation assumptions.
JM Financial has trimmed its DCF-based target price (TP) to ₹1,380 from ₹1,390 while maintaining a Buy rating.
Meanwhile, Motilal Oswal noted that PVR Inox’s performance remains highly sensitive to occupancy, which is largely content-driven and outside the company’s control. While management is optimistic about the FY26 content slate, Motilal highlighted that a 200–300 bps dip in occupancy could significantly impact screen-level profitability and EBITDA.
The brokerage raised its FY26–27E EBITDA estimates by 1–3% on better cost controls but reiterated a ‘Neutral’ rating with a price target of ₹1,180.
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