Barings LLC Invests $6.82 Million in VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VNET)

Key Points

• Barings LLC has acquired a new stake in VNET Group, purchasing 832,077 shares valued at approximately $6.82 million, representing about 0.32% of the company.
• VNET Group's stock has seen a decline of 9.9%, with shares currently priced at $7.49, while the company reported a loss of ($0.12) earnings per share last quarter, missing expectations.
• Despite recent challenges, Wall Street analysts have generally rated VNET Group as a "Buy" with a consensus price target of $9.30, indicating potential for growth.

Barings LLC bought a new stake in VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VNET - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 832,077 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $6,823,000. Barings LLC owned approximately 0.32% of VNET Group as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VNET. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in VNET Group by 229.3% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,093 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 4,939 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of VNET Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. Bingham Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of VNET Group during the 1st quarter valued at about $86,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in VNET Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $66,000. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC bought a new position in shares of VNET Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $80,000. 72.83% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Wall Street Zen raised VNET Group from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, July 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $9.30.

VNET Group Stock Down 9.9%

Shares of VNET stock traded down $0.82 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $7.49. 8,420,045 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,550,242. The stock's 50 day moving average is $6.87 and its 200-day moving average is $7.73. The company has a market cap of $2.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -749.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.34. VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR has a fifty-two week low of $1.71 and a fifty-two week high of $16.13.

VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The information technology services provider reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $309.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.22 billion. VNET Group had a return on equity of 2.11% and a net margin of 1.66%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.28) earnings per share. Analysts predict that VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR will post -0.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

VNET Group announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Friday, June 27th that authorizes the company to repurchase $0.00 in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

VNET Group Profile

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.