GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Shares of GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $25.21, but opened at $26.12. GDS shares last traded at $26.15, with a volume of 235,365 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GDS shares. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of GDS in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of GDS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. JMP Securities set a $40.00 price objective on shares of GDS in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Raymond James upgraded GDS from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $53.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised GDS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.48.

GDS Stock Performance

The business has a 50 day moving average price of $31.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.09. The stock has a market cap of $5.00 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.63 and a beta of 0.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.25.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.17. The company had revenue of $425.13 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.11 billion. GDS had a negative net margin of 35.97% and a negative return on equity of 8.22%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($2.16) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that GDS Holdings Limited will post -0.89 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of GDS

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in GDS by 26.8% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,177 shares of the company’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 672 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in shares of GDS by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 182,388 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,721,000 after purchasing an additional 2,543 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of GDS by 121.9% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,557 shares of the company’s stock worth $132,000 after purchasing an additional 3,053 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in GDS during the 3rd quarter worth $64,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in GDS by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 88,423 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,101,000 after buying an additional 3,481 shares in the last quarter. 33.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

GDS Company Profile

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.