GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) shares gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $19.82, but opened at $20.51. GDS shares last traded at $21.49, with a volume of 326,139 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on GDS shares. Royal Bank of Canada cut GDS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $26.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. JMP Securities set a $40.00 target price on shares of GDS in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of GDS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Raymond James upgraded shares of GDS from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $53.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of GDS in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $39.48.

GDS Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.25. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $30.72 and its 200 day moving average is $25.10. The company has a market cap of $4.09 billion, a PE ratio of -7.04 and a beta of 0.23.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($2.16) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that GDS Holdings Limited will post -0.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On GDS

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of GDS in the third quarter worth approximately $64,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its position in shares of GDS by 1,904.2% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,788 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,000 after buying an additional 3,599 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in shares of GDS by 121.9% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,557 shares of the company’s stock worth $132,000 after buying an additional 3,053 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC acquired a new position in GDS during the fourth quarter worth about $310,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.71% of the company’s stock.

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.