Altice, AMD, Penn Entertainment: Trending Tickers

American cable provider Altice USA (ATUS) will be selling Cheddar News to media company Archetype, a subsidiary of private equity firm Regent which owns publications like the Military Times.

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) shares are on the rise Thursday afternoon, already up 129% in 2023 year-to-date. AMD seeks to tighten competition with rival semiconductor manufacturer Nvidia (NVDA) in the AI race heading into 2024.

HG Vora Capital is currently requesting a seat on the board of casino operator Penn Entertainment (PENN).

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Video Transcript

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JULIE HYMAN: Let's check in on some of today's top trending tickers, we're going to start with Altice here, those shares rising on a report that the company is in agreement to sell Cheddar news to the media company archetype that's owned by private equity firm, Regent.

According to CNBC, terms of the deal were not officially disclosed but it's structured as a so-called earn out deal. Cheddar was bought by Altice USA in 2019 for $200 million and there's been a lot of chatter about Cheddar potentially getting sold by Altice, so this is not a shock that this is happening. What's interesting is that Altice, the US. Shares have had a killer month here because of some speculation surrounding the stock and now this latest news.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah so if you remember, of course Jon Steinberg founded Cheddar 2016, sold it to Altice three years later for around $200 million. And if you look there, still though, even with the pop though, pull back the chart here. Stock is down about 30% this year, still, and remember how we talked about how much the street loves certain names even after big runs this year, even for this one after this rough 2023, most analysts believe more than 60% still a hold on this name.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, I mean the bounce that it has seen has been a bounce off the bottom to your point. There were some speculation and some reports that there was an interested buyer in Altice Portugal. Altice Portugal isn't even connected directly to Altice USA, it's just that Patrick Drahi is the controller of both of those entities, so that was sort of originally why the stock had been rallying and it's actually set to have a record month, Altice USA. But again, it is from that low base that you mentioned.

JOSH LIPTON: Meanwhile, shares of AMD, they are rising higher today now up about 130% this year. So AMD is obviously, I mean it's one of the great business stories, I mean for a long time we talked about, he's always like AMD and Intel David Goliath battling in the PC and server markets and then AMD obviously really kind of changed the game there really, I mean you can chalk it up to Lisa Su, the CEO there you can also chalk it up to Intel stumbling and AMD taking advantage. But now, of course AMD has its sights set on the mighty NVIDIA.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah and that's really been one of the big stories this year with NVIDIA just sort of running away with the AI story. AMD has slowly been gaining some traction there, what's interesting is, I think everyone, not everyone, many of the semiconductor analysts that you and I have talked to over the past couple of months, when we ask them what is your AI related play going to be in 2024, a lot of them have said AMD.

JOSH LIPTON: Oh, for sure, so much love in the street, yeah.

JULIE HYMAN: Is the one that's coming up and catching up with NVIDIA. Now, this year we mentioned, as you mentioned it, AMD is up about 132%, NVIDIA is up by nearly 250%. What's interesting about that as well, the valuation on a forward earnings basis for AMD is still higher than that for NVIDIA, I guess in part because the PE has gone so far but the earnings estimates are keeping up here.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah you mentioned those two I mean that'll be a great battle to watch next year because remember this month AMD kind of came out swinging and they had these new AI chips, they even kind of put some financial bogeys on it, I think Lisa Su said the new products they think they generate about $2 billion in revenue next year and they're obviously very confident in their tech, they're confident they're going to be able to win over these big tech customers. Though, analysts are quick to point out NVIDIA's new offerings come to market over the next several quarters too, so watching these two battle out will be a fun one.

JULIE HYMAN: Yes it will be a fun one for us and for investors too one would think. Penn Entertainment in the green today on news that one of its top shareholders, HG Vora Capital Management, is requesting the right to appoint directors to the board of the Casino operator, all of this coming from the Wall Street Journal. The journal says that HG Vora has an 18.5% economic interest including swaps with Penn.

It's interesting here because Vora is not, according to the journal, typically an activist firm but is stepping up in this case we have seen. If you look at how casinos have done this year, they've done pretty well and Penn is one of the only ones that is down on the year, so that's why you see, a part of the reason that you see, Vora get involved here.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah, Penn was one of those names too, I mean it surged during the pandemic when everyone is at home, when you're at home, why not try out some online gambling. But now to your point, Julie, your popping today though, even with that move shares firmly in the red in 2023. It sounds like the hedge fund, not afraid of a proxy fight if they have to here. Again, this is the journal citing sources, apparently they're arguing the stock is deeply undervalued, they are not happy with the capital allocation, and what they're referring to is sort of here kind of what failed bets on M&A as well. So you could have a fight on your hands.

JULIE HYMAN: Well, I mean they are in talks to be clear, so the fight wouldn't happen unless the talks don't go anywhere when it comes to M&A, remember Penn bought Barstool Sports then sold it back to--

JOSH LIPTON: Portnoy, yeah.

JULIE HYMAN: --To Dave Portnoy for $1, now has partnered up with ESPN. So that's some of the back and forth strategy that we've seen from the company.

JOSH LIPTON: $1, yeah.

JULIE HYMAN: $1 not a bad deal.