Which of Kansas City’s public companies is the most valuable?

Which Kansas City-area public company is worth the most money?

For much of the last decade, that was a fairly easy question. Even during its worst days, the answer usually was Sprint Corp.

With Sprint’s departure on April 1, 2020, Cerner Corp. (Nasdaq: CERN) was the heir apparent. Until it wasn’t.

The last six months have shown a spotlight on the peculiarities of the stock market and public companies generally. Here’s a look at the market capitalization of five locally based public companies now in the running for the title KC’s most valuable publicly traded company over the last 18 months.

For those watching AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.’s (NYSE: AMC) rise from a hypothetical bankruptcy filing to a meme trading phenomenon, none of this is a surprise. But for the uninitiated, the change in valuations can be astonishing. (As of last week, AMC’s market cap hit $22.67 billion — up more than 2,900% since the start of 2020.)