UPDATE: Ascendiant Capital Initiates Coverage on IMAX Corporation on Multiple Upside Drivers

In a report published Tuesday, Ascendiant Capital Markets analyst Marla Backer initiated coverage on

with a Buy rating and $32.00 price target. In the report, Ascendiant Capital Markets noted, “IMAX has become a key premium technology in the exhibitor industry, in our view. Since the 2003 launch of DMR technology, IMAX's footprint has increased more than 5-fold. Growth remains robust, with record 3Q13 backlog of 356 theaters. The 2007 100 JV theater deal with AMC created a domino effect, we believe, as other major exhibitors lined up to partner with IMAX. IMAX's subsidiary in China, which currently operates 131 IMAX screens, is on-track to surpass North America as the largest IMAX market in the world. IMAX generally has the top films, which tend to outperform in the IMAX format. For example, Catching Fire generated $12.6M in IMAX on 347 screens, which equates to roughly $37K per screen versus an estimated $15K-$19K per standard 35mm screen, implying that the film over-indexed in IMAX by about 2-3x.” IMAX Corporation closed on Monday at $28.42.