832,077 Shares in VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VNET) Bought by Barings LLC

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) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 832,077 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $6,823,000. Barings LLC owned about 0.32% of VNET Group at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Triata Capital Ltd purchased a new position in shares of VNET Group during the fourth quarter worth about $47,377,000. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. purchased a new position in shares of VNET Group during the fourth quarter worth about $7,183,000. Man Group plc purchased a new position in shares of VNET Group during the fourth quarter worth about $5,094,000. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of VNET Group by 610.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,198,750 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $5,682,000 after buying an additional 1,029,963 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of VNET Group during the first quarter worth about $7,855,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.83% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

VNET Group Price Performance

Shares of VNET Group stock traded up $0.18 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $8.01. 2,219,229 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,077,677. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $6.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $7.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -800.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.18. VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR has a fifty-two week low of $1.72 and a fifty-two week high of $16.13.

VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report) last issued 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 business had revenue of $309.52 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.22 billion. VNET Group had a net margin of 1.66% and a return on equity of 2.11%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.28) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR will post -0.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

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.