Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of PENN Entertainment Call Options (NASDAQ:PENN)

PENN Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PENN) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors purchased 29,869 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 36% compared to the average daily volume of 21,899 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PENN Entertainment

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of PENN Entertainment by 65.6% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 342,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,238,000 after purchasing an additional 135,697 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank grew its stake in shares of PENN Entertainment by 7.6% during the first quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 102,277 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,862,000 after acquiring an additional 7,229 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in shares of PENN Entertainment by 4.6% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 74,291 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,353,000 after acquiring an additional 3,254 shares during the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in PENN Entertainment by 27.5% during the 1st quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $315,000 after purchasing an additional 3,722 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of PENN Entertainment by 80.3% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 13,614 shares of the company’s stock worth $248,000 after buying an additional 6,063 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on PENN shares. Barclays reduced their price objective on PENN Entertainment from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. StockNews.com cut shares of PENN Entertainment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of PENN Entertainment from $27.00 to $23.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Macquarie lowered their price target on shares of PENN Entertainment from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of PENN Entertainment in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.80.

PENN Entertainment Price Performance

PENN stock traded up $0.21 on Wednesday, hitting $17.64. 5,406,942 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,596,292. PENN Entertainment has a twelve month low of $15.88 and a twelve month high of $31.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11. The business’s fifty day moving average is $17.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.42.

PENN Entertainment (NASDAQ:PENN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported ($1.75) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.57) by ($1.18). The firm had revenue of $1.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. PENN Entertainment had a positive return on equity of 1.31% and a negative net margin of 7.70%. Analysts anticipate that PENN Entertainment will post -0.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PENN Entertainment Company Profile

PENN Entertainment, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated entertainment, sports content, and casino gaming experiences. The company operates through five segments: Northeast, South, West, Midwest, and Interactive. It operates online sports betting in various jurisdictions; and iCasino under Hollywood Casino, L'Auberge, ESPN BET, and theScore Bet Sportsbook and Casino brands.