GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) Shares Gap Down – Here’s Why

Shares of GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $27.14, but opened at $24.84. GDS shares last traded at $25.00, with a volume of 2,854,934 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on GDS shares. Royal Bank of Canada lowered GDS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $26.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Wall Street Zen upgraded GDS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of GDS in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. 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, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded GDS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, GDS presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $39.48.

GDS Trading Down 9.5%

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $24.63 and a 200 day moving average of $25.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.25, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.19. The company has a market capitalization of $4.68 billion, a PE ratio of -8.08 and a beta of 0.28.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 20th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.22) by $0.70. GDS had a negative return on equity of 8.22% and a negative net margin of 35.97%. The business had revenue of $375.14 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($1.96) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that GDS Holdings Limited will post -0.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of GDS

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its position in shares of GDS by 2,390.0% during the 1st quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 956 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of GDS in the 1st quarter worth $25,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of GDS in the 1st quarter worth $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of GDS during the 1st quarter worth $26,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of GDS by 26.8% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,177 shares of the company’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 672 shares during the last quarter. 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.