VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) Shares Up 9.6% Following Analyst Upgrade

VNET Group, Inc. – Unsponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VNET) shares were up 9.6% during trading on Wednesday after Zacks Research upgraded the stock from a strong sell rating to a hold rating. The company traded as high as $11.12 and last traded at $10.8720. Approximately 2,179,230 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 70% from the average daily volume of 7,338,228 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.92.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on VNET. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $24.79 target price on shares of VNET Group in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America set a $16.30 price target on VNET Group and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $16.00 price objective on shares of VNET Group in a report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of VNET Group in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of VNET Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, VNET Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.03.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Lifeng Chen sold 83,544 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.51, for a total value of $126,151.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 334,164 shares in the company, valued at approximately $504,587.64. The trade was a 20.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 12.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of VNET Group

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VNET. Leonteq Securities AG purchased a new stake in VNET Group during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of VNET Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of VNET Group by 52.2% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,157 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 1,426 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in VNET Group by 26.8% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,495 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 1,160 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz SE bought a new stake in VNET Group during the 4th quarter valued at $50,000. 72.83% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

VNET Group Stock Down 2.3%

The firm has a market cap of $2.81 billion, a PE ratio of -7.51 and a beta of 0.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.99, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.99. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $9.73.

VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 26th. The information technology services provider reported ($1.20) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by ($1.17). The firm had revenue of $390.32 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $388.47 million. VNET Group had a negative net margin of 22.01% and a negative return on equity of 31.59%. On average, analysts predict that VNET Group, Inc. – Unsponsored ADR will post 0.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About VNET Group

VNET Group, Inc (NASDAQ: VNET) is a leading carrier-neutral internet data center (IDC) services provider in China. Established in 1999 and headquartered in Beijing, the company delivers a full spectrum of infrastructure solutions that support the growing digital economy. Its core offerings include data center colocation, managed hosting, network connectivity, and disaster recovery services designed to meet the performance and reliability requirements of enterprise and internet content customers.

The company’s product portfolio spans private cloud, public cloud and hybrid cloud deployments, enabling clients to scale computing resources on demand.