Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET)

Key Points

• VNET Group experienced a significant increase in options trading, with traders acquiring 9,260 call options, marking a 70% rise over the average volume.
• The company's stock is currently trading at $8.18, with a one-year low of $1.71 and a high of $16.13, alongside a market cap of $2.20 billion and a negative price-to-earnings ratio.
• Analysts have upgraded VNET Group's rating from "sell" to "hold," with a consensus rating of "Buy" and a price target of $9.30, indicating positive sentiment among professionals in the field.

VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 9,260 call options on the stock. Thisisanincreaseof70% compared to the typical daily volume of 5,438 call options.

VNET Group Stock Performance

VNET stock traded down $0.82 during trading on Friday, reaching $7.49. 8,420,045 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,129,111. VNET Group has a twelve month low of $1.71 and a twelve month high of $16.13. The company has a market capitalization of $2.01 billion, a P/E ratio of -749.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.18. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $6.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $7.71. 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 (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The information technology services provider reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.01) by ($0.11). VNET Group had a return on equity of 2.11% and a net margin of 1.66%. The firm had revenue of $309.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.22 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.28) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that VNET Group will post -0.06 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On VNET Group

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its holdings in VNET Group by 16.8% during the second quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 14,600 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $101,000 after purchasing an additional 2,100 shares in the last quarter. Bingham Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in VNET Group by 24.3% during the second quarter. Bingham Private Wealth LLC now owns 13,050 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $90,000 after purchasing an additional 2,547 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in VNET Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $36,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in VNET Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in VNET Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 72.83% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

VNET Group Company 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.