GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) Shares Up 7.2% – Time to Buy?

Shares of GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) were up 7.2% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $22.02 and last traded at $21.95. Approximately 219,720 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 1,588,167 shares. The stock had previously closed at $20.47.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

GDS Trading Up 7.2 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $4.18 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.84 and a beta of 0.23. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $19.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $13.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.30, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 21st. The company reported ($0.18) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $384.14 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that GDS Holdings Limited will post -1.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of GDS

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 33,978 shares during the period. Baupost Group LLC MA lifted its position in GDS by 63.5% in the second quarter. Baupost Group LLC MA now owns 4,249,952 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,482,000 after acquiring an additional 1,649,952 shares during the last quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of GDS by 72.7% during the second quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,226,133 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,391,000 after acquiring an additional 516,133 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in GDS by 17.3% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 849,568 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,892,000 after buying an additional 125,395 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bamco Inc. NY purchased a new stake in shares of GDS in the first quarter valued at about $2,896,000. Institutional investors own 33.71% of the company’s stock.

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.