On August 4, Healthpeak Properties (NYSE:DOC) reported second-quarter results and raised its full-year 2026 guidance for the second time this year. The healthcare real estate owner now expects diluted earnings per share of $0.48 to $0.52, up from $0.46 to $0.50, and diluted FFO as Adjusted of $1.73 to $1.77, two cents higher at the midpoint than its prior outlook. That kind of guidance bump usually points to a business firing on most cylinders, and for large parts of Healthpeak’s portfolio, that is exactly what happened in the quarter.
A Portfolio Firing On Most Cylinders
Outpatient medical and lab leasing stayed busy, with 1.6 million square feet of new and renewal leases signed in the quarter. Outpatient medical occupancy climbed 20 basis points to 90.7%, and lab occupancy jumped 80 basis points to 78.5%, evidence that Healthpeak is filling space that sat empty a year earlier. As of August 3, another 882,000 square feet of outpatient medical space was under letter of intent, on top of leases already signed after quarter end.
The bigger growth story sits inside Janus Living (NYSE:JAN), the senior housing operator Healthpeak controls with a 73.6% stake. Janus Living’s revenue jumped 45% year over year to $216 million, and its Adjusted EBITDA rose 34% to $79 million, with same-store margins expanding 250 basis points. That growth came with cash behind it: between quarter-end and August 3, Janus Living closed roughly $1.0 billion of senior housing acquisitions, funded with cash and no debt on its books.
Healthpeak also used the quarter to reshape its balance sheet rather than simply grow it. July’s recapitalization, which sold a 49% stake in an 86-property outpatient medical portfolio to Brookfield, brought in roughly $1.025 billion at a 5.9% cap rate. Combined with other dispositions and loan repayments, that generated $1.4 billion of proceeds in the quarter and through August 3. Healthpeak used part of the money to retire $650 million of 3.25% senior notes and about $375 million of commercial paper, while its board authorized a new $500 million share buyback program.
Lab Space Still Lagging Behind
Not every segment moved in the same direction. Lab same-store net operating income fell 3.2% in the quarter, the only one of Healthpeak’s three core businesses to shrink, even as lab occupancy improved. That decline held total company-wide same-store NOI growth to just 1.8%, well behind the 19.2% same-store growth Janus Living posted in senior housing.
FFO as Adjusted per share came in at $0.46, flat with a year earlier, even as full-year guidance for that same metric moved higher. Leverage has not disappeared just because Healthpeak sold assets, either: net debt to Adjusted EBITDAre stood at 4.7 times for the quarter, a reminder that the balance sheet work is ongoing rather than finished.
The growth inside Janus Living is also not entirely Healthpeak’s to keep. About 26.4% of that business is owned by outside investors and reported as noncontrolling interest, so a real slice of that 45% revenue growth and billion-dollar acquisition spree accrues to someone else. And much of the cash funding buybacks and debt paydown came from selling stakes in existing buildings rather than growth in day-to-day operations, which raises the question of how long that well keeps refilling.
Wall Street Barely Blinks
Hedge fund ownership in Healthpeak ticked up from 34 funds to 35 in the most recent quarter, a modest gain rather than a rush into the stock. Short interest sits at 4.56% of the float, mid-single-digit territory that suggests some organized skepticism without signaling a heavy bet against the shares. Together, the figures describe a stock that institutional investors are neither piling into nor fleeing, even after a second guidance raise this year.
What Happens From Here
Healthpeak’s second guidance raise of the year rests on real strength in outpatient medical leasing and outsized growth at Janus Living, but the lab segment’s same-store decline shows the recovery is not even across the portfolio. The company has also leaned on selling stakes in existing buildings to fund buybacks and debt paydown, rather than purely growing cash flow from operations. For the bull case, the current pipeline of signed and pending leases needs to keep converting into occupancy gains.
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