Raymond James Upgrades GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) to "Strong-Buy"

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Raymond James from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $53.00 price objective on the stock. Raymond James' price objective suggests a potential upside of 86.55% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the company. Citizens Jmp raised GDS to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of GDS from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. JMP Securities started coverage on shares of GDS in a report on Monday, January 27th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $35.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of GDS from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $26.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of GDS from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $45.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $33.23.

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GDS Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GDS traded up $0.74 on Thursday, reaching $28.41. 3,908,573 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,946,355. GDS has a twelve month low of $5.85 and a twelve month high of $52.50. The company has a fifty day moving average of $31.47 and a 200-day moving average of $24.70. The company has a market capitalization of $5.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.31 and a beta of 0.07. 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 quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $425.13 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.11 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($2.16) earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that GDS will post -0.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of GDS

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of GDS by 26.8% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,177 shares of the company's stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 672 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in GDS by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 182,388 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,721,000 after acquiring an additional 2,543 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of GDS by 121.9% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,557 shares of the company's stock worth $132,000 after purchasing an additional 3,053 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in shares of GDS during the third quarter worth $64,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of GDS by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 88,423 shares of the company's stock worth $2,101,000 after purchasing an additional 3,481 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.