VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

VNET Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:VNET) gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $3.76, but opened at $4.05. VNET Group shares last traded at $4.10, with a volume of 1,009,832 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of VNET Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. HSBC raised shares of VNET Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $5.20 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of VNET Group in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $4.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of VNET Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $3.97.

VNET Group Stock Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $3.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $2.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a market cap of $1.10 billion, a PE ratio of -1.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.67 and a beta of -0.27.

VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 27th. The information technology services provider reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $274.35 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $266.56 million. VNET Group had a negative net margin of 34.62% and a negative return on equity of 11.44%. Equities research analysts anticipate that VNET Group, Inc. will post 0.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VNET Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Wolverine Trading LLC purchased a new position in shares of VNET Group during the third quarter valued at about $46,000. Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of VNET Group in the second quarter worth approximately $36,000. Walleye Capital LLC bought a new position in VNET Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $115,000. AXA S.A. bought a new position in VNET Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $65,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in VNET Group by 785.4% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 42,074 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $172,000 after purchasing an additional 37,322 shares during the period. 72.83% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

VNET Group Company Profile

VNET Group, Inc, an investment holding company, provides hosting and related services in China. It offers managed hosting services consisting of managed retail services, such as colocation services that dedicate data center space to house customers' servers and networking equipment, as well as allow customers to lease partial or entire cabinets for their servers; interconnectivity services that allow customers to connect their servers; value-added services, including hybrid IT, bare metal, firewall, server load balancing, data backup and recovery, data center management, server management, and backup server services; cloud services that allow customers to run applications over the internet using IT infrastructure; and VPN Services that extend customers' private networks by setting up connections through the public internet.