Highly-shorted PENN Entertainment rallies with an activist investor on the prowl

PENN Entertainment (NASDAQ:PENN) rallied in early action on Friday after activist investor Donerail Group issued a critical letter to the company's board of directors.

Donerail Group said PENN Entertainment (PENN) has seen a loss in value due to the company's misguided interactive strategy and poor capital allocation. The decision by the board to reward PENN CEO Jay Snowden with compensation of nearly $100 million was also questioned amid the financial underperformance and share price struggles.

Notably, the activist investor believes PENN (PENN) could attract double its current trading price in a sale.

On Seeking Alpha, analyst Juxtaposed Ideas recently broke down why PENN (PENN) may see more pain ahead due to the ESPN Bet integration.

Shares of PENN Entertainment (PENN) were up 6.84% in premarket trading to $15.66. The casino stock is still down more than 38% on a year-to-date basis. On a quantitative analysis basis, PENN ranks 28th out of the 31 casino and gaming stocks with a Seeking Alpha Quant Rating. Short interest on PENN stands at 19.9% of the total float, which could add some volatility to the mix.