QUICK BUY ALERT: PENN GAMING (PENN)

We’ve made an exciting purchase and addition to our site portfolio today in the form of Penn National Gaming (PENN), a company that operates in gambling and sports bets. As one may expect, stocks that deal in gambling and, more specifically, sports gambling took major hits throughout the pandemic. This is due to multiple factors—demand falling as people turn to spend their money on necessities and events getting canceled due to the pandemic. Canceled events mean no betting, which means less revenue for companies such as Penn. Despite this, Penn has proven that it’s more than capable of regaining traction and getting back on its feet, more so than other similar companies.

Though demand took a dip some years ago, it quickly rose again and is only going higher as casinos open up and more and more states legalize gambling in its many forms. This can be seen in online mentions today relative to the previous year, with mentions of staying, visiting, and gambling at casinos up 67% since early-mid last year. The company provides online and in-person gambling across all sports, and with the NFL season starting back up soon, it’s safe to say that Penn’s future is looking bright. Furthermore, Penn’s younger userbase is steadily growing, meaning the company does indeed have a future to begin with.

Penn reported record revenue in the first quarter, increasing 23% to a new high of $1.56 billion. This is no doubt aided by the fact that Penn is willing to take help from others. Despite being competitors, the company has a longstanding partnership with Draft Kings (DKNG); they also have a 36% stake in Barstool Sports, a company name that’s familiar to many people across the world. Penn additionally has complete control of theScore, having acquired the company in its entirety back in October of 2021. For these combined reasons, we strongly believe in Penn and consider it to be one of if not the best gambling play right now. We’ve purchased the stock at $31.92 a share.