Watchlist
CXW · CoreCivic, Inc.
Last analysed ·
Against its published line
Nothing is through its line on this close.
How to read this
The red mark is the published kill line — the price that would prove the pick wrong. The dot is where the name closed on 18 September 2026; a dot LEFT of the mark has closed through its line.
Distance is drawn on a square-root scale, so close calls get the room. Past 8% a row stops competing and reads well clear, with a hollow dot to say the figure is off the drawn scale. Rows run tightest first.
Current thesis
CoreCivic's facility sales support a real-estate monetization thesis; another completed sale by third-quarter results must confirm its next leg while operating contracts remain intact. A weekly close below $31 invalidates the price thesis.
Kill line
A weekly close below $31 invalidates the price thesis; independently, no additional completed facility sale by the Q3 2026 report, provisionally ~2026-11-04, ends the next-sale case, as would loss of a management contract at a sold facility.
Pick status
Open commitment catalyst in 10dscored if the kill line above fires How this is scored →Latest analysis and events for CXW —
As of 13 September 2026, the latest FrontierPicks analysis for CoreCivic, Inc. (CXW): CoreCivic's facility sales support a real-estate monetization thesis; another completed sale by third-quarter results must confirm its next leg while operating contracts remain intact. A weekly close below $31 invalidates the price thesis.
Kill line: A weekly close below $31 invalidates the price thesis; independently, no additional completed facility sale by the Q3 2026 report, provisionally ~2026-11-04, ends the next-sale case, as would loss of a management contract at a sold facility.
Next dated event on file: — catalyst in 10d.
Current Thesis
CoreCivic's facility sales support a real-estate monetization thesis whose next leg requires another government purchase by the third-quarter report while operating contracts remain intact; a weekly close below $31 invalidates the price thesis. The 2026-08-05 results release reported $2.2 billion of gross proceeds across four facilities and $608.5 million of debt repayment. Management described additional purchase discussions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as preliminary, without assurance of another transaction.
The material extension to the published record is the 2026-08-10 announcement of a $500 million accelerated share repurchase agreement. CoreCivic raised its full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) guidance to $1.64–$1.73, while reducing adjusted net income guidance to $157.0–$165.0 million. Management attributed the changes to the repurchase's effects on interest income and shares outstanding. August 10 announcement.
As an inference, the narrative is maturing — the completed sales and repurchase are dated August announcements, and the company's news listing reviewed on 2026-09-13 contains no subsequent release. Another completed facility sale would overturn that assessment of the announcement cycle; the listing alone cannot establish whether investor participation has broadened. CoreCivic investor relations.
Bullish and bearish views on CoreCivic, Inc.
The model's bull view on CoreCivic, Inc. (CXW), in brief: Monetization has produced actual proceeds. The bear view: Revenue growth outpaced earnings growth. Both cases follow in full.
Bull Case
- Monetization has produced actual proceeds. The 2026-08-05 results release reported four facility sales for $2.2 billion gross and $608.5 million of debt repayment. These completed transactions substantiate the mechanism, although they do not establish the probability of another sale.
- Repurchases progressed beyond an authorization. The agreement signed on 2026-08-07 commits $500 million to corporate share repurchases; the 2026-08-10 filing anticipated $255.8 million of authorization remaining after completion. This documents corporate demand without establishing its daily market impact. August 10 Form 8-K.
- Utilization accompanied the revenue increase. In the 2026-08-05 results release, second-quarter revenue reached $684.9 million, up 27.3% year over year, while occupancy reached 78.4%, against 76.8% in the second quarter of 2025.
Bear Case
- Revenue growth outpaced earnings growth. The 2026-08-05 release reported second-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $109.4 million, up 5.9%, while net income fell 3.6% to $37.1 million. Those figures do not establish improving operating leverage.
- Per-share guidance obscures lower totals. The 2026-08-10 update reduced full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance to $434.5–$439.5 million from $440.5–$445.5 million. Its higher adjusted EPS guidance therefore does not independently demonstrate stronger underlying operations. Revised guidance.
- Property ownership and contracts diverge. The 2026-08-05 facility-sale announcement identified management-contract expirations in August 2031 for Prairie and September 2027 for Midwest. Continued operating income remains a contract question after the property proceeds have been received. Facility-sale announcement.
Setup & Price Structure
The adjusted daily-bar record puts the 2026-09-11 close at $34.93, 0.3% below the $35.05 52-week high, with a three-month price increase of 28.9%. The 14-period relative strength index was 56.7. These observations establish proximity to the high; they do not measure retail crowding or distance above a moving average.
Officer sales supply a separate positioning observable: the cited Securities and Exchange Commission Form 4 records date transactions by Lucibeth Mayberry to 2026-08-12, Anthony Grande to 2026-08-17 and David Garfinkle to 2026-08-21. These transactions do not identify the officers' motives or establish aggregate investor positioning. No volume, fund-flow or moving-average series accompanies the 2026-09-11 price snapshot, so expanding participation remains unproven.
The $31 weekly-close threshold is the published research boundary. The available price snapshot does not establish a traded support shelf at that level.
Catalyst Calendar (next 30 days)
- 2026-09-30 — Federal fiscal year ends. This is a government-calendar boundary relevant to the federal customer exposure reported on 2026-08-05. It is not a confirmed CoreCivic award date; the Diamondback contract's 2025-09-30 commencement is too small a sample to support a claim about award timing.
- ~2026-11-04, estimated — Third-quarter results. This later event is included because the next-sale thesis turns on it. The date remains unconfirmed: CoreCivic's event listing reviewed on 2026-09-13 provides no third-quarter announcement. The report would establish whether another sale occurred, operating contracts remain intact and the 2026-08-10 adjusted guidance survives. Company event listing.
What Would Change Our Mind
Failure of the monetization story to produce another transaction would break the proposed next leg: no additional completed facility sale by the third-quarter report, provisionally dated ~2026-11-04, ends that case. Independently, a weekly close below $31 invalidates the price thesis. Loss of a management contract at a sold facility would contradict the retained-operating-income premise described in the 2026-08-05 announcement.
The positive resolution requires an additional completed sale by that report, continued management of the sold facilities and maintenance of the 2026-08-10 adjusted guidance before the price boundary is breached. Modest conviction reflects the distinction between demonstrated transactions and preliminary discussions; the supplied transaction sample cannot support an empirical success rate.
Correlation Notes
This is a single-name monetization case. ICE represented approximately 53% of residential-segment revenue in the second quarter, according to the 2026-08-05 release, supporting an inference of shared exposure to federal detention policy with other contractors. No paired return series is available as of 2026-09-11, so no statistical correlation or confirming group move is established. The single-name thesis fails under the price, transaction or contract conditions above regardless of peer performance.
Notes
- FY2026 headline EPS guidance of $15.00–15.20 includes a roughly $1.8B one-time gain on facility sales; the recurring figure is adjusted EPS $1.62–1.70.
- Revenue is concentrated in federal agencies — ICE was ~53% of residential-segment revenue in Q2 2026 — and is therefore exposed to annual appropriations.
- The four facilities sold in 2026 are no longer owned by CoreCivic; the company expects to keep operating them under existing ICE contracts.
- Guidance is reported on both GAAP and FFO/normalized-FFO measures, so headline EPS and per-share cash-flow metrics are not comparable across screens.
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