GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Shares of GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) have earned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the nine analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $33.23.

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded GDS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Citizens Jmp upgraded GDS to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of GDS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. StockNews.com lowered shares of GDS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Raymond James raised 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 note on Thursday, March 20th.

GDS Stock Performance

NASDAQ GDS opened at $28.41 on Tuesday. GDS has a 1-year low of $5.85 and a 1-year high of $52.50. The company has a market cap of $5.41 billion, a PE ratio of -9.31 and a beta of 0.07. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $31.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.25, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.17. GDS had a negative net margin of 35.97% and a negative return on equity of 8.22%. The firm had revenue of $425.13 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.11 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($2.16) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that GDS will post -0.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of GDS

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bamco Inc. NY increased its stake in shares of GDS by 128.6% during the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 6,040,555 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,227,000 after buying an additional 3,397,592 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of GDS by 509.6% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Triata Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of GDS in the 4th quarter valued at $41,472,000. Sachem Head Capital Management LP lifted its position in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new position in shares of GDS during the third quarter worth $27,212,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.71% of the company’s stock.

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.