VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) Shares Gap Up - Still a Buy?

VNET Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report)'s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $3.58, but opened at $3.74. VNET Group shares last traded at $3.71, with a volume of 151,446 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VNET has been the topic of several analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded VNET Group to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. UBS Group upped their price target on VNET Group from $6.40 to $7.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. StockNews.com raised VNET Group from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Citigroup initiated coverage on VNET Group in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a "buy" rating and a $4.00 target price on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded VNET Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the company from $3.10 to $5.00 in a research report on Friday, November 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $4.78.

VNET Group Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $931.78 million, a PE ratio of -1.63 and a beta of -0.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.83. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $3.72 and a 200-day moving average of $2.92.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wolverine Trading LLC purchased a new stake in VNET Group in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of VNET Group during the second quarter worth $36,000. Walleye Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of VNET Group during the third quarter worth $115,000. AXA S.A. acquired a new stake in VNET Group during the second quarter valued at $65,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in VNET Group by 785.4% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 42,074 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $172,000 after purchasing an additional 37,322 shares in the last quarter. 72.83% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About VNET Group

VNET Group, Inc, an investment holding company, provides hosting and related services in China. It offers managed hosting services consisting of managed retail services, such as colocation services that dedicate data center space to house customers' servers and networking equipment, as well as allow customers to lease partial or entire cabinets for their servers; interconnectivity services that allow customers to connect their servers; value-added services, including hybrid IT, bare metal, firewall, server load balancing, data backup and recovery, data center management, server management, and backup server services; cloud services that allow customers to run applications over the internet using IT infrastructure; and VPN Services that extend customers' private networks by setting up connections through the public internet.