ekapol
Short interest on the S&P 500 real estate stocks advanced by twelve basis points at March-end to 2.07% from 1.95% a month ago as the sector gears up for the quarterly earnings season amid interest rate concerns.
The Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund ETF (NYSEARCA:XLRE), which tracks the S&P 500 real estate stocks, is down 7.89% year-to-date, while the broader S&P 500 index is up 8.02%. For the month of March, the fund was down 0.03%, while the S&P 500 index was up 2.28%.
Seeking Alpha's Quant Rating system grades XLRE as Strong Sell, considering factors such as Momentum, Risk, Dividends, etc. The rating system gives the ETF 1.44 points on a scale of 5. Meanwhile, SA analysts rate the fund as Buy.
Host Hotels & Resorts (HST) continued to report the highest percentage of shares sold short. The hotel REIT holding a weightage of 1.49% in the index posted a short position of 6.60% as of March-end. Bets against the REIT soared by 126 basis points during the course of the month.
Industrial REIT Prologis (PLD), which holds the highest index weight of 11.69%, was among the least shorted stocks, and the specialized REIT Weyerhaeuser (WY) had the least short position as of first quarter-end.
Here is a look at the 5 most shorted and 5 least shorted S&P 500 real estate stocks at the end of Q1:
Short interest by subsectors:
Hotel REITs and Real Estate Management & Development logged the highest increase in short interest among XLRE subsectors. Bets against the two sectors grew by 126 basis points and 48 basis points, respectively.
Specialized REITs were outliers, with short positions in the subsector decreasing by 12 basis points during the month.
Here is a look at the subsector performance in March: