Universal Health Realty Income Trust enters its May 1 earnings report with short sellers actively cutting exposure — a notable shift in positioning for a healthcare REIT trading near $40.86.
Short interest has fallen steadily over the past month. SI dropped roughly 8% over the past week alone, reaching 2.1% of the free float as of April 24. That level sits in the middle of the pack for the sector — the ORTEX short score of 35 and a utilization rank in the 68th percentile confirm the stock is not a heavily contested short. Utilization itself is minimal at just over 1%, well below the 52-week high of 5.77%, which means there is no meaningful squeeze dynamic at play. Borrow costs have edged up sharply in percentage terms — the cost to borrow doubled over the past month to 0.57% — but in absolute terms that figure remains firmly in the "easy to borrow" range. The price has given back 4.1% on the week after a modest 2.7% gain over the prior month, a pullback broadly in line with healthcare REIT peers: LTC fell 3.9% and CTRE dropped 3.9% over the same stretch, while NHI fared worse at -10.1%.
Options positioning offers no dramatic read into the print. The put/call ratio is running at 0.39, only slightly above its 20-day average of 0.37 and less than one standard deviation from the mean. That is close to the mildest defensive posture the stock has seen in the past year — the 52-week low on the PCR was 0.01, meaning even brief spikes in bearish options activity have historically been shallow and short-lived. Calls dominate the open interest, reflecting a mostly constructive stance among options traders.
The ownership structure is worth noting for a trust of this size. The strategic relationship with its parent, Universal Health Services, remains intact — UHS holds a 5.7% stake, unchanged in the most recent filing. Passive allocators dominate the register. BlackRock holds over 16% and Vanguard nearly 12%, figures that leave little room for forced-selling dynamics. The CEO, Alan B. Miller, bought shares in October 2025 — a $453,000 open-market purchase near $37 — which is the most recent insider signal on record. That data is now roughly six months old and should be treated with some caution, but the pattern of CEO buying on dips stretches back through multiple prior years.
On the analyst side, the only available coverage data comes from a single firm whose most recent action — raising the target modestly to $43 while maintaining a Hold — was reported in November 2025. At over five months old, this cannot be treated as current. The $43 mean target implies modest upside from current levels, but with just one covering analyst on record, the consensus carries limited weight. The May 1 print will therefore be judged primarily against the REIT's own fundamentals — occupancy trends, rent collections, and whether any portfolio activity at UHS-affiliated facilities feeds through into trust revenues.
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