VNET Group has now passed its May 26 earnings event, and the positioning story that defined the pre-print setup has barely shifted — bears are still in the stock, call-side conviction has cooled, and the borrow market has eased somewhat from its recent tightest point.
Short interest remains the dominant feature of this name. At 13.2% of free float — roughly 35.6 million shares — the bearish bet is still one of the most substantial in the universe, ranking in the bottom 5th percentile by short score rank. That figure has been broadly stable through May, and the ORTEX short score at 71.1 has held in a tight band around 70-72 for the past two weeks, signalling no meaningful post-earnings capitulation from bears. Days to cover on the latest official FINRA data runs to 6.8 days, keeping mechanical squeeze risk live if sentiment turns. Cost to borrow, at 0.81% APR, has eased roughly 14% over the past month and remains low in absolute terms — shorts are not under financing pressure.
Availability tells a slightly more complex story than it did pre-earnings. After tightening sharply from roughly 180% in mid-May to a low near 79% just before the report, availability has now recovered to about 108% — meaning the lending pool has loosened somewhat since the print. That loosening is consistent with some post-earnings borrow being returned, but the level remains in tight territory relative to the 52-week range, which bottomed at 27.4%. Options sentiment has also drifted away from its pre-print call-heavy extreme. The put/call ratio has edged back up to 0.32 from a low near 0.22-0.25 in the days before the event — still below its 20-day average of 0.37, but no longer signalling the same concentrated bullish skew. That shift suggests options traders are reassessing after the print rather than pressing calls further.
The Street's view on VNET is broadly constructive but the most recent analyst data is dated. The last tracked move of note was B of A Securities raising its target to $12.60 in August 2025 while maintaining a Buy. The current mean price target of $106.71 is almost certainly a stale or data-mismatched figure relative to the stock's $9.92 close — it should be treated with caution and is not used here as a valuation anchor. What the factor scores do confirm is a standout earnings-surprise track record: VNET ranks at the 100th percentile on EPS surprise, with EPS momentum over 30 and 90 days both running strongly, at the 86th and 82nd percentiles respectively. EV/EBITDA near 10.5x and a P/B of 2.6x are not demanding multiples for a Chinese data-centre operator with this kind of earnings momentum profile.
Institutional positioning carries one notable detail. Point72 added 4.4 million shares in the quarter to March 31, bringing its stake to 5.7% of shares. Balyasny and Goldman Sachs also added materially over the same period. Against that, Morgan Stanley trimmed 3.3 million shares. The net picture from active managers is one of selective accumulation — not a uniform directional view, but broadly more buying than selling among the names on the register.
Among correlated peers, the post-earnings week has been notably weaker for the China data-centre complex. GDS fell 18.5% on the week and KC dropped 12.4%. VNET's own 1.7% weekly decline looks contained by comparison, suggesting some relative resilience in the immediate aftermath of its print. What to watch next is whether the elevated short base begins to unwind as post-earnings positioning normalises, or whether bears reload ahead of the next confirmed event — currently scheduled for September 2.
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