Raymond James & Associates Trims Stock Position in PENN Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PENN)

Raymond James & Associates reduced its position in PENN Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PENN – Get Rating) by 30.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company owned 100,422 shares of the company’s shares after selling 43,764 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates owned 0.06% of PENN Entertainment, valued at $2,763,000 at the time of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors recently changed their positions in the company. Contrarius Investment Management Ltd acquired a new position in PENN Entertainment valued at approximately $75,776,000 during the second quarter. The Bank of Nova Scotia acquired a new position in PENN Entertainment valued at approximately $65,983,000 during the second quarter. Long Pond Capital LP acquired a new position in PENN Entertainment valued at approximately $38,990,000 during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in PENN Entertainment by 79.3% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,789,038 shares of the Company’s stock valued at $75,891,000 after acquiring an additional 791,500 shares during the most recent quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC increased its stake in PENN Entertainment by 42.8% during the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,662,997 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,544,000 after purchasing an additional 498,084 shares last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.40% of the company’s shares.

Insider Activities at PENN Entertainment

In other news from PENN Entertainment, CEO Jay A. Snowden sold 163,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction Tuesday, December 27th. The stock sold at an average price of $30.12 for a total transaction of $4,923,867.00. Following the transaction, the Chief Executive Officer now owns 604,527 shares of the Company, valued at $18,208,353.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC’s website. 1.50% of the shares are currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street analyst ponders

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com downgraded PENN Entertainment from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 12. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded PENN Entertainment from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 9, and lowered its price target on the stock to 34.00 from $50.00 $. Morgan Stanley began coverage of PENN Entertainment in a research note on Monday, November 21st. They assigned an “equal weight” rating and a price target of $36.00 on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded PENN Entertainment from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 6, lowering the price target on the stock to $35.00 from $45.00. Finally, JMP Securities lowered its price target on PENN Entertainment to $45.00 from $48.00 and gave the stock a “Market Outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given it a buy rating. According to MarketBeat, PENN Entertainment has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.22. PENN Entertainment shares are up 3.4%

NASDAQ PENN shares opened at $32.85 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.10 billion, a P/E of 23.13, a PEG ratio of 1.55, and a beta of 2.18. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $32.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. PENN Entertainment, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.49 and a 12-month high of $51.72.

PENN Entertainment (NASDAQ:PENN – Get Rating) last reported its earnings results on Thursday, November 3rd. The company reported $0.72 per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion in the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. PENN Entertainment had a return on equity of 6.42% and a net margin of 3.86%. As a group, equity analysts are forecasting that PENN Entertainment, Inc. will post 1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About PENN Entertainment

(received rating)

PENN Entertainment, Inc owns and manages gaming and racing facilities and video game terminal operations with a focus on slot machine entertainment. It operates through the following business segments: Northeast, South, West, Midwest and Other. The Northeast segment consists of properties such as the Ameristar East Chicago, the Greektown Casino-Hotel and the Hollywood Casino Bangor.