GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) Shares Gap Down - Here's Why

GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS - Get Free Report)'s share price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $20.63, but opened at $18.78. GDS shares last traded at $19.07, with a volume of 811,921 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on GDS shares. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of GDS from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Raymond James upgraded GDS from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $53.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded GDS from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $45.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. JMP Securities set a $40.00 price objective on shares of GDS in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of GDS from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $39.48.

GDS Stock Up 8.3 %

The company's 50 day moving average is $30.72 and its 200 day moving average is $25.10. The company has a market cap of $4.09 billion, a PE ratio of -7.04 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.25.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.17. GDS had a negative net margin of 35.97% and a negative return on equity of 8.22%. The business had revenue of $425.13 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.11 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted ($2.16) earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that GDS Holdings Limited will post -0.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of GDS

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in GDS during the 3rd quarter valued at about $64,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in GDS by 26.8% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,177 shares of the company's stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 672 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its position in GDS by 1,904.2% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,788 shares of the company's stock valued at $90,000 after acquiring an additional 3,599 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of GDS by 121.9% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,557 shares of the company's stock valued at $132,000 after acquiring an additional 3,053 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of GDS in the 4th quarter worth $310,000. 33.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.