Einhorn Reduces Penn Entertainment Holdings as Shares Slip

  • DME Capital sold nearly 700,000 shares of Penn Entertainment in Q4
  • The hedge fund was also likely a seller of the regional casino stock in the prior
  • The money manager still owns more than six million shares of the gaming stock

David Einhorn’s DME Capital Management reduced its holdings of Penn Entertainment (NASDAQ: PENN) in the final three months of 2025.

PENN Play
An image for Penn Entertainment. David Einhorn’s DME Capital reduced its stake in the stock in the fourth quarter. (Image: Penn Entertainment)

The hedge fund’s latest Form 13F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicates it entered 2026 owning 6.04 million shares of the regional casino operator, down from 6.77 million at the start of the fourth quarter.

It appears likely that the December quarter marked the second consecutive quarter in which DME reduced its exposure to Penn because it held 7.5 million shares of the gaming stock at the end of June 2025. Penn remains the lone casino stock in the DME portfolio, but the hedge fund held several other consumer discretionary names at the end of 2025.

Penn Weakness May Be Behind Einhorn Decision

Money managers aren’t legally bound to disclose why they buy or sell stocks, so no official reason why DME reduced exposure to Penn has been given.

On the other hand, Einhorn’s decision to trim his firm’s Penn stake may be as simple as dissatisfaction with a stock that’s shed nearly 46% of its value over the past year and the belief that some of that capital is better deployed elsewhere.

Form 13F’s don’t indicate exactly when transactions are made, but as it relates to DME and Penn, it’s interesting to note that the fourth quarter included Penn’s announcement that it was scrapping the troubled ESPN Bet venture. While that announcement was viewed as a positive by many in the investment community, the stock continued trending lower following that announcement and currently resides at its lowest levels in roughly six years.

In Other 13F News

Tuesday brought a flurry of Form 13F filings, plenty of which include gaming names. Appaloosa Management, the hedge fund controlled by Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, dumped its stake in Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ: CZR), another struggling casino stock. That hedge fund held the stock for more than two years, indicating it likely lost money on that investment.

In the fourth quarter, several other hedge funds maintained exposure to gaming equities including FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment and MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM).

On the positive side of the ledger, Ricky Sandler’s Eminence Capital boosted its stake in DraftKings during the final three months of 2025. That money manager held 8.4 million shares of the sports wagering stock at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 6.3 million at the conclusion of the prior quarter.

Todd Shriber
Todd Shriber Financial Reporter

Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org.

Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019.

Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com.

He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better.

Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.

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