GDS Holdings (NASDAQ:GDS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• GDS Holdings has received an average consensus rating of "Buy" from 11 analysts, with two hold ratings, six buy ratings, and three strong buy ratings.
• The stock price target is set at an average of $40.57, with notable upgrades from various analysts, including JPMorgan raising their target from $34 to $46.
• Despite a recent decline of 1.4% in stock value, GDS Holdings reported a significant earnings beat, posting $0.48 EPS against analyst expectations of -$0.22.

GDS Holdings (NASDAQ:GDS - Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of "Buy" by the eleven analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and three have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $40.5667.

GDS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of GDS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of GDS from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their target price for the company from $34.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of GDS to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Daiwa Capital Markets reissued a "buy" rating on shares of GDS in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of GDS in a report on Wednesday, May 21st.

Institutional Trading of GDS

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of GDS by 41.6% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,806 shares of the company's stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 531 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in GDS by 68.4% during the second quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,639 shares of the company's stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 666 shares in the last quarter. Huntington National Bank boosted its position in GDS by 83,700.0% during the second quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 838 shares of the company's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 837 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group boosted its position in GDS by 2,390.0% during the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 996 shares of the company's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 956 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in GDS by 113.0% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,836 shares of the company's stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 974 shares in the last quarter. 33.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

GDS Stock Up 2.7%

Shares of GDS stock traded up $0.86 during trading on Friday, reaching $32.27. 2,278,212 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,759,892. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $32.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $29.99. GDS has a 1-year low of $12.52 and a 1-year high of $52.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.15 billion, a PE ratio of 9.90 and a beta of 0.33.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by $0.70. The company had revenue of $375.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.72 billion. GDS had a net margin of 39.90% and a return on equity of 0.78%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($1.96) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that GDS will post -0.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About GDS

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.