GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

Shares of GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the nine research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $33.23.

GDS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. 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. Citizens Jmp raised GDS to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. JMP Securities began coverage on shares of GDS in a research note on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $35.00 price objective on the stock. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of GDS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded shares of GDS from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $53.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday.

GDS Stock Down 3.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GDS opened at $27.67 on Tuesday. 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 $5.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.07 and a beta of 0.06. The company has a 50 day moving average of $31.34 and a 200-day moving average of $24.57. GDS has a one year low of $5.85 and a one year high of $52.50.

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 firm had revenue of $425.13 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($2.16) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that GDS will post -0.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of GDS

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bamco Inc. NY boosted its holdings in shares of GDS by 128.6% in the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 6,040,555 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,227,000 after buying an additional 3,397,592 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in GDS by 509.6% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,323,482 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,206,000 after purchasing an additional 1,942,341 shares during the period. Triata Capital Ltd bought a new position in GDS during the 4th quarter worth about $41,472,000. Sachem Head Capital Management LP increased its holdings in GDS by 161.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sachem Head Capital Management LP now owns 2,825,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,630,000 after purchasing an additional 1,745,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new stake in shares of GDS in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,212,000. 33.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.