GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) Shares Down 2.7% – Here’s What Happened

GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) fell 2.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $19.73 and last traded at $20.08. 323,270 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 1,971,103 shares. The stock had previously closed at $20.64.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on GDS. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded GDS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. StockNews.com downgraded GDS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Citizens Jmp upgraded GDS to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of GDS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of GDS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.48.

GDS Price Performance

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $31.62 and a 200 day moving average of $25.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.25, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market cap of $3.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.69 and a beta of 0.23.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.17. The business 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($2.16) EPS. On average, analysts expect that GDS Holdings Limited will post -0.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GDS

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in shares of GDS in the 3rd quarter valued at $64,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in shares of GDS by 26.8% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,000 after acquiring an additional 672 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in shares of GDS by 1,904.2% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,788 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,000 after purchasing an additional 3,599 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in 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 during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC purchased a new position in GDS during the fourth quarter worth approximately $310,000. 33.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.