Adam Aron, chief executive officer of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., sold another US$9.65 million in shares of the meme-driven theater stock, following sales that he had said were prudent for estate planning.

Aron, who has led the struggling company since 2016, sold 312,500 shares on Dec. 7, according to a regulatory filing Thursday after markets closed. That followed recent sales of more than US$25 million.

Corporate executives routinely sell stock they get as compensation. But Aron has publicly wooed retail investors and touted AMC’s future prospects while selling the stock and benefiting from a mammoth rally in the shares. 

Aron continues to own 95,997 shares, according to the filing, excluding about 2.9 million issuable in the future and based on performance targets. The company declined to comment.

AMC executives and board members have unloaded more than US$70 million in shares this year in a flurry of sales that coincided with the surge in the stock. Forced to shut down during 2020 because of COVID-19, the chain is headed toward its third straight year of losses.

A frequent Twitter user who has embraced AMC’s popularity with retail investors, Aron has defended the preplanned stock sales. He has pointed out that he still owns millions of units of stock in the company, which are mostly in the form of equity grants, as well as performance-based awards.

Separately AMC’s chief financial officer, Sean Goodman, sold all of his 18,316 shares for about US$565,000, according to a filing. That doesn’t include almost 600,000 shares that are subject to continued service or targets. 

AMC shares fell 8.9 per cent to US$29.46 in New York. The stock has gained nearly 14-fold this year.