VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) Shares Gap Down - Should You Sell?

Key Points

• Shares of VNET gapped down Monday, opening at $9.03 after a $9.39 close and last trading around $9.11 on roughly 1.13 million shares.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed—two Buys and one Sell—leaving a MarketBeat consensus rating of Hold$18.08, well above the current price (Jefferies recently set a $23.55 target).
• Fundamentals show weakness: VNET reported an EPS miss (0.00 vs. $0.04 est.), a negative net margin and negative P/E, elevated debt-to-equity (2.68), and a director recently sold 83,544 shares, reducing his position by 20%.

Shares of VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report) gapped down prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $9.39, but opened at $9.03. VNET Group shares last traded at $9.1050, with a volume of 1,131,786 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on VNET. Bank of America restated a "buy" rating on shares of VNET Group in a report on Monday, March 16th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $23.55 price objective on shares of VNET Group in a report on Monday, March 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of VNET Group in a report on Friday, March 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $18.08.

VNET Group Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $2.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -31.71 and a beta of 0.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.68. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $10.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.79.

VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, March 16th. The information technology services provider reported $0.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.04 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $384.07 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $368.64 million. VNET Group had a positive return on equity of 1.36% and a negative net margin of 2.48%. Analysts predict that VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR will post -0.06 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at VNET Group

In other VNET Group news, Director David Lifeng Chen sold 83,544 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.51, for a total transaction of $126,151.44. Following the sale, the director directly owned 334,164 shares in the company, valued at $504,587.64. This represents a 20.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 12.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On VNET Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of VNET Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $15,951,000. DNB Asset Management AS acquired a new stake in shares of VNET Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,744,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP raised its holdings in shares of VNET Group by 110.3% in the 3rd quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 236,240 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,440,000 after purchasing an additional 123,901 shares in the last quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of VNET Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $3,087,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of VNET Group by 180.3% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,711,976 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $17,685,000 after purchasing an additional 1,101,137 shares in the last quarter. 72.83% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About VNET Group

VNET Group, Inc NASDAQ: VNET is a leading carrier-neutral internet data center (IDC) services provider in China. Established in 1999 and headquartered in Beijing, the company delivers a full spectrum of infrastructure solutions that support the growing digital economy. Its core offerings include data center colocation, managed hosting, network connectivity, and disaster recovery services designed to meet the performance and reliability requirements of enterprise and internet content customers.

The company's product portfolio spans private cloud, public cloud and hybrid cloud deployments, enabling clients to scale computing resources on demand.

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