GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) Short Interest Down 9.5% in October

GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,620,000 shares, a decline of 9.5% from the October 15th total of 6,210,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,720,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.3 days. Approximately 3.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

GDS Price Performance

Shares of GDS traded up $1.53 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $23.49. 2,427,199 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,589,257. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.30. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.46. The stock has a market cap of $4.48 billion, a PE ratio of -7.32 and a beta of 0.23. GDS has a 12 month low of $5.01 and a 12 month high of $24.74.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 21st. The company reported ($0.18) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.25) by $0.07. The business had revenue of $388.92 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $384.14 million. GDS had a negative net margin of 39.96% and a negative return on equity of 9.10%. Equities analysts expect that GDS will post -1.14 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in GDS by 20.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 77,057 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,572,000 after buying an additional 13,121 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in shares of GDS in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $64,000. Luxor Capital Group LP purchased a new stake in shares of GDS in the 3rd quarter valued at $9,993,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of GDS during the 3rd quarter valued at $416,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in GDS in the 3rd quarter worth $419,000. Institutional investors own 33.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on GDS from $14.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Nomura Securities upgraded shares of GDS to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of GDS from $12.40 to $22.40 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.29.

About GDS

GDS Holdings Limited, together with its subsidiaries, develops and operates data centers in the People's Republic of China. The company provides colocation services comprising critical facilities space, customer-available power, racks, and cooling; managed hosting services, including business continuity and disaster recovery, network management, data storage, system security, operating system, database, and server middleware services; managed cloud services; and consulting services.