Citigroup Inc. Increases Stock Position in GDS Holdings $GDS

Key Points

• Citigroup Inc. raised its stake in GDS Holdings by 804.9%, owning 293,556 shares valued at approximately $7.44 million after purchasing an additional 261,117 shares in the first quarter.
• GDS Holdings reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the last quarter, significantly beating the consensus estimate of (0.22), with a revenue of $375.14 million.
• Analysts have upgraded GDS shares recently, with a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $40.57.

Citigroup Inc. raised its holdings in GDS Holdings (NASDAQ:GDS - Free Report) by 804.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 293,556 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 261,117 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. owned about 0.15% of GDS worth $7,436,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bamco Inc. NY raised its stake in GDS by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 6,673,226 shares of the company's stock valued at $158,556,000 after buying an additional 632,671 shares in the last quarter. Aspex Management HK Ltd grew its holdings in shares of GDS by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Aspex Management HK Ltd now owns 4,926,727 shares of the company's stock worth $117,059,000 after purchasing an additional 922,709 shares during the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of GDS by 195.6% during the fourth quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,845,623 shares of the company's stock worth $43,852,000 after purchasing an additional 1,221,289 shares during the last quarter. Triata Capital Ltd purchased a new position in shares of GDS during the fourth quarter worth about $41,472,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of GDS by 0.9% during the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,177,503 shares of the company's stock worth $29,826,000 after purchasing an additional 10,838 shares during the last quarter. 33.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GDS has been the topic of several research reports. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of GDS in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised GDS to a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised GDS from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $34.00 to $46.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Wall Street Zen raised GDS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets reissued a "buy" rating on shares of GDS in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $40.57.

GDS Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GDS traded up $0.82 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $32.23. 3,374,146 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,885,334. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62. GDS Holdings has a 1 year low of $12.52 and a 1 year high of $52.50. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.06. The stock has a market cap of $6.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.89 and a beta of 0.33.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 20th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.22) by $0.70. GDS had a return on equity of 0.78% and a net margin of 39.90%. The company had revenue of $375.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($1.96) EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that GDS Holdings will post -0.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

GDS 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.