GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $19.43, but opened at $20.76. GDS shares last traded at $21.63, with a volume of 1,238,615 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on GDS shares. Citizens Jmp upgraded GDS to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of GDS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. StockNews.com lowered GDS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Jefferies Financial Group raised GDS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, JMP Securities set a $40.00 price target on GDS in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.48.

GDS Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.94 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.77 and a beta of 0.23. The company’s 50 day moving average is $31.51 and its 200-day moving average is $25.13.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GDS

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in GDS in the third quarter worth $64,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in GDS by 26.8% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,177 shares of the company’s stock worth $75,000 after acquiring an additional 672 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 3,599 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in GDS by 121.9% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,557 shares of the company’s stock valued at $132,000 after acquiring an additional 3,053 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC purchased a new stake in GDS during the fourth quarter valued at about $310,000. 33.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.