GLPI enters the back half of May in a curious position: short sellers have been retreating over the past week, yet the one-month picture tells a different story.
Short interest has edged down over the past five sessions, falling roughly 0.4% to 5.0% of the free float, and is off its intraweek peak. But zoom out to thirty days and the picture reverses — SI has climbed nearly 10% over that window, from around 12.8 million shares in mid-April to just above 14.1 million now. The monthly build suggests a deliberate accumulation of short positions, even if recent momentum has started to flag. Against that backdrop, the lending market offers no additional signal of stress: availability is extraordinarily loose at 2,420%, meaning for every share currently borrowed there are more than twenty-four still sitting in the pool. Cost to borrow has also eased sharply, dropping 18% on the week to 0.40% — close to a multi-month low. There is no squeeze pressure here.
Options positioning has shifted meaningfully since late April. The put/call ratio climbed from readings below 0.25 through most of April to around 0.71 this week — still only half a standard deviation above the 20-day mean of 0.59, so not an extreme reading, but the directional move is notable. Investors appear to have added more downside hedging into May after a period of unusually light put activity. The 52-week PCR range spans 0.17 to 1.19, so current levels are unremarkable in absolute terms — this is protective positioning rather than outright alarm.
The Street remains broadly constructive. The analyst consensus points roughly 15% higher from the current $47.53 close, with the mean price target around $54.50. Most recent moves have been target raises — Scotiabank lifted to $52 in mid-May while maintaining its neutral-leaning Sector Perform rating, and Barclays bumped its Overweight target to $53 in late April. Mizuho and RBC have both carried Outperform ratings with targets in the low-$50s. The bulls cite GLPI's raised 2026-2027 AFFO guidance — driven by the Bally's Lincoln acquisition — and the company's relatively clean balance sheet with potential for a credit upgrade. Bears focus on tenant concentration risk, rate sensitivity, and the creeping structural threat from iGaming eating into traditional casino volumes. Valuation sits at a P/E of 14.6x and EV/EBITDA of 12.8x — modest moves over the past month in either direction, reflecting a stock that has been essentially rangebound. The forward dividend yield of 6.8% sits at the 87th percentile on the factor score screen, making income the clearest investment case here.
On institutional flows, the most active recent change among top holders was Wellington Management adding nearly 2 million shares in Q1 2026, building its stake to just under 5% of shares outstanding. Cohen & Steers added around 1.2 million shares in the same period. Citadel, by contrast, trimmed its position by roughly 1.4 million shares. The broader holder base, at 321 institutions, is stable. Insider activity is less encouraging on the surface — the CFO, President/COO, and Chairman/CEO all sold shares in late January and February — though the sizes were modest and the pattern looks like routine tax-driven selling rather than a directional signal.
Closest peer VICI slipped 0.6% on the week, broadly in line with GLPI's 0.4% decline. FCPT fell a sharper 1.1%, while storage REITs CUBE and PSA were hit harder, down 4.8% and 4.4% respectively, as rate expectations weighed on longer-duration real estate names. GLPI's relative stability in that context is consistent with its lower beta profile among specialized REITs.
The next earnings event is scheduled for July 23. Between now and then, the key question is whether the one-month short interest build continues to unwind — or resumes — as rate expectations crystallise and the gaming REIT sector re-prices around the summer earnings cycle.
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