VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) Stock Price Down 8.1% - Here's Why

VNET Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report) shares traded down 8.1% on Friday . The company traded as low as $3.52 and last traded at $3.53. 184,028 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 1,519,208 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.84.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on VNET. HSBC raised VNET Group from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $5.20 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of VNET Group in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a "buy" rating and a $4.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of VNET Group from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of VNET Group to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, VNET Group currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $3.97.

VNET Group Trading Down 9.1 %

The firm has a market cap of $898.32 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.82 and a beta of -0.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $3.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.53.

VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 27th. The information technology services provider reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.05. VNET Group had a negative net margin of 34.62% and a negative return on equity of 11.44%. The company had revenue of $274.35 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $266.56 million. On average, research analysts expect that VNET Group, Inc. will post 0.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On VNET Group

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new position in VNET Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. AXA S.A. acquired a new position in shares of VNET Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $65,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in VNET Group by 785.4% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 42,074 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $172,000 after buying an additional 37,322 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC increased its stake in VNET Group by 1,199.7% during the 1st quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 42,305 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $66,000 after buying an additional 39,050 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in VNET Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $199,000. 72.83% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.