PSTL Shorts Keep Building After Earnings, Borrow Stays Loose

PSTL has just printed earnings, and the short position has grown rather than retreated, raising the question of whether bears see more to come or are simply slow to cover.

Short interest moved decisively this week. At 16.7% of the free float, it has risen 7% in a single session and is up 25.6% over the past month, now sitting at 4.34 million shares. The pre-earnings note published earlier this week flagged 15.6% as an already elevated reading; that figure has climbed further since the release. The ORTEX short score has ticked up to 78.6, its highest reading in the recent history shown here, confirming that the bearish positioning has intensified rather than unwound. For context, the short score rank places PSTL in the first percentile of the ORTEX universe, an extreme reading for any name, let alone a small-cap REIT.

The lending market, however, continues to tell a calmer story. Availability is at 156%, meaning there are roughly 1.5 shares available to borrow for every share already short. That is tighter than it was a week ago, when availability ran near 177%, but it remains far removed from the 52-week low of 16.9%, the point earlier in the year when the borrow market was genuinely constrained. The cost to borrow is 0.76%, down 26% over the past month. For all the conviction embedded in the short position, there is no evidence of a supply squeeze developing in the lending pool. Options confirm the unbothered tone: the put/call ratio is 0.19, barely above its 20-day average of 0.18 and sitting near the low end of its 52-week range of 0.04 to 0.91. Options traders are not pressing the bearish case.

The Street remains constructively positioned on the fundamental story, though analyst data is a few weeks old. The consensus target is $26.07 against a current price of $21.59, implying roughly 21% upside on the mean. Recent analyst moves, primarily from BMO Capital and Scotiabank through September, were target increases accompanied by maintained positive ratings. JP Morgan sits at Neutral with a $25 target. The bull case rests on 3% rent escalators embedded in 59% of leases, a BBB credit rating, and above-peer AFFOPS growth expected at 7% in 2026 and 11% in 2027. The bear case centres on USPS headline risk: potential downsizing of its logistics footprint, reduced government support, and the risk that rising capital costs outpace rent growth. The EV/EBITDA multiple is 12.7x, down slightly over the past month. EPS momentum ranks in the 93rd and 96th percentiles over 30 and 90 days respectively, a signal that estimate revisions have been running strongly in the right direction.

Institutional ownership adds a noteworthy footnote. FMR LLC held 10.2% as of September 30, up by 493,000 shares in the latest reported period. BlackRock added 705,000 shares in the same window to reach 9.75%. Both movements represent meaningful accumulation for a stock with a market cap below $700 million. More notable is the 13D filing from Andrew Spodek, logged as an activist holder with a 3.2% stake as of September 9. A Schedule 13D signals active intent rather than passive ownership, and Spodek's presence on the register is worth watching, though as always with 13D/G disclosures, stakes are as last disclosed and positions can change without a further filing once a holder drops below the 5% threshold.

What to watch next is whether the short position begins to unwind now that earnings are in the rear-view, or whether bears extend their conviction into the next quarter, with the following report not currently expected until late February 2027.