GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

Shares of GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $35.58, but opened at $29.92. GDS shares last traded at $31.61, with a volume of 2,439,081 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of GDS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. JMP Securities started coverage on shares of GDS in a research note on Monday, January 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $35.00 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of GDS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of GDS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $26.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of GDS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $33.23.

GDS Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $5.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.38 and a beta of 0.06. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $31.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $24.44. 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 (NASDAQ:GDS) last issued 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 return on equity of 8.22% and a negative net margin of 35.97%. The firm had revenue of $425.13 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.11 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned ($2.16) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that GDS Holdings Limited will post -0.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GDS

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GDS. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in GDS in the third quarter worth $1,001,000. Swedbank AB raised its position in GDS by 3.7% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 338,974 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,915,000 after acquiring an additional 12,100 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in GDS by 1.4% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 182,388 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,721,000 after acquiring an additional 2,543 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new position in GDS in the third quarter worth $27,212,000. Finally, Waterfront Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in GDS in the third quarter worth $4,755,000. 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.