GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on GDS. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on GDS from $37.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of GDS in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of GDS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $36.00 price target on shares of GDS in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, GDS presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.54.

GDS Price Performance

GDS stock traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $33.41. The company had a trading volume of 977,310 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,877,081. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.78 and a quick ratio of 1.78. GDS has a 12-month low of $26.97 and a 12-month high of $48.61. The company has a market capitalization of $6.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.54 and a beta of 0.43. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.78.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 30th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter. GDS had a return on equity of 17.94% and a net margin of 30.70%.The company had revenue of $454.51 million during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that GDS will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Judy Qing Ye sold 37,394 shares of GDS stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.21, for a total transaction of $1,354,036.74. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Yixin Qian sold 10,000 shares of GDS stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.25, for a total value of $352,500.00. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 66,865 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,356,991.25. This represents a 13.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 7.99% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On GDS

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its holdings in GDS by 77.7% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 7,004,083 shares of the company’s stock valued at $214,115,000 after purchasing an additional 3,062,658 shares during the last quarter. Sachem Head Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of GDS by 45.0% during the 4th quarter. Sachem Head Capital Management LP now owns 9,300,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $324,570,000 after buying an additional 2,885,000 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of GDS during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $68,092,000. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of GDS by 20,731.3% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,720,247 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,037,000 after buying an additional 1,711,989 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP raised its position in shares of GDS by 1,671.6% during the 3rd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,227,203 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,493,000 after buying an additional 1,157,934 shares during the period. 33.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

GDS Company Profile

GDS Holdings Limited, founded in 2001 and headquartered in Shanghai, is a leading network-neutral data center services provider in China. The company operates a portfolio of state-of-the-art data center facilities designed to support the mission-critical IT infrastructure of cloud service providers, internet enterprises, financial institutions, and government entities. GDS was among the first Chinese providers to offer high-density colocation solutions, catering to customers with demanding computing and storage requirements.

GDS specializes in delivering scalable colocation, cross-connect, and interconnection services within its facilities, enabling clients to establish high-speed, low-latency connections to major cloud platforms and internet exchange points.