GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 15,510,000 shares, an increase of 54.2% from the May 15th total of 10,060,000 shares. Approximately 8.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,830,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.5 days.

GDS Trading Down 3.9%

Shares of GDS stock traded down $1.04 on Friday, hitting $25.68. The stock had a trading volume of 994,410 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,192,386. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.25. GDS has a one year low of $8.62 and a one year high of $52.50. The stock has a market cap of $4.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.42 and a beta of 0.25. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $24.75 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $26.39.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last issued its 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 firm had revenue of $375.14 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.72 billion. GDS had a negative net margin of 35.97% and a negative return on equity of 8.22%. The business’s revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($1.96) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that GDS will post -0.89 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of GDS

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in GDS by 26.8% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,000 after acquiring an additional 672 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its position in GDS by 2,390.0% during the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 956 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in GDS during the first quarter valued at $25,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC purchased a new position in GDS during the first quarter valued at $25,000. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in GDS during the first quarter valued at $26,000. Institutional investors own 33.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GDS has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of GDS in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of GDS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of GDS in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Raymond James upgraded shares of GDS from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $53.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of GDS in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price 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.