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

Shares of GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $21.16, but opened at $22.64. GDS shares last traded at $21.92, with a volume of 290,510 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on GDS. Nomura Securities raised shares of GDS to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of GDS from $14.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on GDS from $12.40 to $22.40 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.29.

GDS Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.30, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $18.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.21. The company has a market cap of $4.11 billion, a PE ratio of -6.72 and a beta of 0.24.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GDS

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Baupost Group LLC MA purchased a new stake in GDS during the first quarter worth about $17,290,000. Farallon Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of GDS during the 1st quarter worth approximately $4,722,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of GDS by 258.1% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 608,625 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,551,000 after purchasing an additional 438,661 shares during the period. Bamco Inc. NY purchased a new position in GDS in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,896,000. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new position in GDS during the first quarter valued at $2,174,000. 33.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.