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

GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) has received an average rating of “Buy” from the five analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $18.29.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on GDS shares. Nomura Securities raised shares of GDS to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of GDS from $14.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of GDS from $12.40 to $22.40 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th.

GDS Stock Performance

Shares of GDS opened at $23.49 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.30, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.48 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.32 and a beta of 0.23. The company’s fifty day moving average is $20.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.46. GDS has a 1 year low of $5.01 and a 1 year high of $24.74.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 21st. The company reported ($0.18) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.25) by $0.07. The company had revenue of $388.92 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $384.14 million. GDS had a negative net margin of 39.96% and a negative return on equity of 9.10%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that GDS will post -1.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GDS

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in GDS by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 9,713,325 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,594,000 after acquiring an additional 33,978 shares during the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY lifted its holdings in GDS by 128.6% in the 3rd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 6,040,555 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,227,000 after purchasing an additional 3,397,592 shares in the last quarter. Baupost Group LLC MA lifted its holdings in GDS by 63.5% in the 2nd quarter. Baupost Group LLC MA now owns 4,249,952 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,482,000 after purchasing an additional 1,649,952 shares in the last quarter. Sachem Head Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in GDS by 161.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sachem Head Capital Management LP now owns 2,825,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,630,000 after purchasing an additional 1,745,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new position in GDS in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,212,000. 33.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

GDS Company Profile

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.