The S&P 500 is betting on Penn National Gaming Inc. and Caesar’s Entertainment Inc. amid the growing legalization of sports betting in the U.S.
Penn PENN,
and Caesar’s CZR,
were announced as new members of the S&P 500 SPX index,
Friday afternoon, along with semiconductor manufacturer NXP Semiconductors NV NXPI and Generac Holdings Inc. GNRC, which sells equipment used to generate power. Flowserve Corp. FLS, SL Green Realty Corp. SLG, Xerox Holdings Corp. XRX and Vontier Corp VNT will descend to the S&P MidCap 400 to make room. The changes are scheduled to take place before negotiations begin on March 22.
Penn saw his stocks rise nearly 750% last year amid the legalization of sports betting and his investment in the popular sports website Barstool. Penn is using the Barstool brand on his gambling platform, which competes with Flutter Entertainment PLC FLTR,
DraftKings DKNG,
William Hill WMH,
Caesar’s and others like American states legalize sports. Michigan became the 15th state to allow online sports gambling earlier this year.
Barstool founder Dave Portnoy has been talking about the shares frequently, while starting to invest publicly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Penn shares closed at a record high of $ 130.47 on Friday, and gained about 7% in trading after the market closed after the announcement.
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Caesar’s is in the process of combining with William Hill to create a bigger rival for online sports betting in the United States, and the shares saw strong gains last year after falling in late February and early March last year due to fears an imminent pandemic has grown. Caesar’s shares have risen 550% in the last 12 months, and prices have risen more than 5% on the floor.
NXP’s shares practically doubled last year, amid the scarcity of semiconductors that hit automotive manufacturers sharply, a key segment for NXP, and shares rose more than 5% in the extended session. Generac increased almost 250% in the last 12 months and gained about 4% at the end of the session.
For more information: the global chip shortage is expected to last until next year, and that’s good news for semiconductor stocks
Xerox shares have struggled, despite investor Carl Icahn agitating for changes in the printing giant, while owning more than 15% of the shares. The stock plummeted after an attempted hostile takeover of HP Inc. HPQ,
failed at the beginning of last year and gained 12.6% in the last 12 months, with the S&P 500 increasing by 58.8%. Xerox shares fell less than 2% after office hours on Friday. The shares of SL Green and Vontier also fell less than 2% in Friday’s trading session, while Flowserve remained stable.