MAC has flipped the script on last week's crowded short narrative — the stock is up 10% on the week and shorts are covering, turning a dilution-driven positioning story into something more complicated.
The key data shift since the June 3 note is the short interest itself. After climbing 63% over the prior 30 days to a peak above 6% of free float, shorts have pulled back sharply. Short interest fell 9% in a single session on June 9, and is now down 4% on the week to 5.6% of the free float — roughly 14.3 million shares. That is still meaningfully elevated versus early May levels near 3.5%, but the direction has clearly reversed. The covering aligns neatly with the price action: MAC has added 4.3% in one day and 10% on the week to close at $24.39, making short positions painful. Borrow conditions reinforce that this is an orderly exit, not a forced squeeze. Availability is ample at 790% — around eight shares still available for every one borrowed — and cost to borrow is a negligible 0.43%. Shorts who want out face no structural barrier.
Options positioning has also shifted toward more bullish territory, adding texture to the covering story. The put/call ratio has dropped to 0.78, well below its 20-day average of 0.82, and running about 1.1 standard deviations below that mean. For context, the ratio was near 0.95 as recently as late April. The move away from protective puts toward calls reflects growing confidence in the rally rather than hedging against a pullback — a meaningful contrast to where positioning sat just six weeks ago.
The Street has largely been moving in the same direction. Deutsche Bank's upgrade to Buy with a $27 target, covered in the prior note, remains the headline action. This morning, Keybanc raised its target from $25 to $27 while keeping its Overweight rating — a fresh confirmation that at least one more buy-side-facing desk sees room above current prices. The divergence between bulls and bears is sharp. Goldman Sachs holds a Sell with a $19 target, JP Morgan maintains Underweight at $19, and those two targets sit roughly $5 below the current price of $24.39 — a gap that bears watching given the stock's recent momentum. The consensus target of $23.25 is now actually below current trading, which historically tends to prompt a wave of upward revisions if the stock consolidates at these levels. The ORTEX short score has nudged lower, to 46.2 from a recent range of 47-48, consistent with easing short pressure rather than a major positioning reset.
Peer performance supports the view that the retail REIT sector broadly had a strong week, not just Macerich. SKT rose 9.8% on the week — almost matching MAC — while SPG added 4.1% and KRG gained 6.3%. The broad lift suggests a sector tailwind rather than MAC-specific news driving the move, which matters for interpreting how durable this rally is. MAC has outperformed its peers year-to-date and remains the highest-beta name in the group, meaning both the upside and the potential retracement could be amplified relative to the wider mall REIT complex.
The next scheduled earnings event is August 5. Between now and then, the key watch is whether short interest continues to deflate from its elevated post-offering levels, or whether new bears step in at the $24-25 range where several Street targets now cluster — with the bull/bear target gap of $8 setting up a clear valuation debate into the summer print.
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