Star Holdings Heads Into May With Fresh Q1 Print and Bullish Options

STHO just dropped its Q1 2026 results — and the headline number is stark. Revenue doubled but the loss deepened.

Q1 revenue came in at $20.9 million, up from $14.6 million a year ago, and sales jumped to $13.1 million from $7.0 million in the prior year period. Yet the net loss widened to $10.3 million from $7.6 million, with basic loss per share deteriorating to $0.85 from $0.57. The pattern mirrors the full-year 2025 story: sales fell to $53.9 million from $66.9 million and net losses shrank to $64.3 million from $86.8 million, but profitability remains distant. Star Holdings is a real estate development company still burning cash as it works through its legacy asset portfolio — revenue growth is real, but so is the widening per-share loss.

The options market read that print as broadly benign. Calls dominate the book, with the put/call ratio at 0.16 — well below its 20-day average of 0.19 and close to the 52-week low of 0.12. That z-score of -1.46 puts current positioning more than a standard deviation bullish relative to recent history. For a small, thinly traded name, this level of call-skew is notable. The stock itself backed it up — up 3.4% on the week to $8.73, and 9.4% higher over the past month, even as Friday ended with a 1.2% pullback following the earnings release. The RSI at 59 reflects moderate momentum, not an overheated tape.

Short positioning tells a benign story for this name. The float percentage data is unavailable given the share structure, but in absolute terms roughly 105,800 shares are borrowed — down 15% over the past month from a mid-April peak near 125,000. That April spike reversed sharply around April 10, when short shares fell from roughly 124,000 to below 99,000 in a single session, before creeping back to current levels. Cost to borrow is negligible at 0.74%, and availability is wide with lending utilization at just 13%, well below its 52-week high of 34%. Nothing about the lending market suggests squeeze pressure or conviction shorting.

The ownership picture reflects a concentrated register that is broadly sticky. Highbridge Capital Management holds approximately 9.9% and Toronto-Dominion Bank 9.5%, while Saba Capital and Foursixthree Capital each own roughly 7–8%. Together the top four holders account for more than a third of the float. Recent institutional movement has been modest: Vanguard added 18,500 shares in Q1, Peapod Lane Capital added 22,300 shares through March, and BlackRock added a small 1,636-share increment. None of these are major repositionings, but the direction — small and steady accumulation from multiple institutions — is consistent with the stock's quiet month-on-month appreciation. Insider data in the snapshot is dated from early 2024 and carries no recent signal.

The next event on the calendar is flagged for May 21, a follow-up announcement following the Q1 print. Given that the two most recent earnings events saw the stock fall 0.6% the next day after the February 2026 print and gain 3.3% after the February 2026 event before it, reaction history is thin and mixed. The DTC of 9.2 days is the more interesting metric to watch: for a micro-cap with a market cap just above $105 million, nine days to cover means any shift in short conviction could move quickly. The setup heading into May 21 is one of widening losses, rising revenue, call-heavy options, and a lending market that remains relaxed — the tension between improving top-line and deteriorating per-share losses is the number to watch next.