GDS Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:GDS)

GDS Holdings (NASDAQ:GDS) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders purchased 12,958 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 320% compared to the average volume of 3,084 call options.

Institutional Trading of GDS

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GDS. Bamco Inc. NY grew its stake in GDS by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 6,673,226 shares of the company’s stock valued at $158,556,000 after buying an additional 632,671 shares in the last quarter. Aspex Management HK Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of GDS by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Aspex Management HK Ltd now owns 4,926,727 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,059,000 after acquiring an additional 922,709 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of GDS by 509.6% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,323,482 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,206,000 after purchasing an additional 1,942,341 shares in the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of GDS by 195.6% in the fourth quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,845,623 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,852,000 after purchasing an additional 1,221,289 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Triata Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of GDS during the 4th quarter valued at $41,472,000. Institutional investors own 33.71% of the company’s stock.

GDS Price Performance

GDS stock opened at $37.72 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.99. The company has a market capitalization of $7.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.57 and a beta of 0.31. GDS has a 52-week low of $9.88 and a 52-week high of $52.50.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by $0.70. The business had revenue of $375.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.72 billion. GDS had a return on equity of 0.78% and a net margin of 39.90%. GDS’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($1.96) earnings per share. Research analysts expect that GDS will post -0.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GDS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of GDS in a report on Thursday, March 20th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of GDS in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Daiwa Capital Markets reissued a “buy” rating on shares of GDS in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of GDS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Raymond James Financial 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 research report on Thursday, March 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $39.48.

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.