GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) Downgraded to Hold Rating by Zacks Research

Zacks Research lowered shares of GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on GDS. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $64.00 target price on shares of GDS in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Weiss Ratings upgraded GDS from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded GDS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, GDS has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.90.

GDS Stock Performance

Shares of GDS stock opened at $40.41 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.86 billion, a PE ratio of 77.71 and a beta of 0.46. GDS has a 52-week low of $22.53 and a 52-week high of $48.61. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $42.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.94. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 20th. The company reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $1.56. GDS had a return on equity of 8.79% and a net margin of 8.12%.The firm had revenue of $426.13 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $436.44 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that GDS will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of GDS

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. AI Squared Management Ltd grew its stake in shares of GDS by 793.5% during the third quarter. AI Squared Management Ltd now owns 98,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,803,000 after acquiring an additional 87,280 shares in the last quarter. Hidden Lake Asset Management LP grew its stake in shares of GDS by 16.3% during the third quarter. Hidden Lake Asset Management LP now owns 205,496 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,953,000 after acquiring an additional 28,806 shares in the last quarter. Aberdeen Group plc grew its stake in shares of GDS by 27.5% during the fourth quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 576,498 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,120,000 after acquiring an additional 124,473 shares in the last quarter. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of GDS during the fourth quarter valued at about $552,000. Finally, ABC Arbitrage SA acquired a new stake in shares of GDS during the third quarter valued at about $514,000. 33.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About GDS

GDS Holdings Limited, founded in 2001 and headquartered in Shanghai, is a leading network-neutral data center services provider in China. The company operates a portfolio of state-of-the-art data center facilities designed to support the mission-critical IT infrastructure of cloud service providers, internet enterprises, financial institutions, and government entities. GDS was among the first Chinese providers to offer high-density colocation solutions, catering to customers with demanding computing and storage requirements.

GDS specializes in delivering scalable colocation, cross-connect, and interconnection services within its facilities, enabling clients to establish high-speed, low-latency connections to major cloud platforms and internet exchange points.