VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) Shares Gap Up - Here's Why

Key Points

• VNET Group's stock gapped up from $9.35 to $9.97 before last trading at $10.09, indicating a significant increase in investor interest with a trading volume of over 4 million shares.
• Bank of America upgraded its price target for VNET Group from $11.80 to $12.60, while Wall Street Zen downgraded it from "hold" to "sell," reflecting mixed analyst sentiment with a consensus rating of "Buy."
• Following a disappointing earnings report that showed a loss of $0.01 per share against expectations, VNET Group announced a share buyback program, suggesting the board believes shares are undervalued.

Shares of VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report) gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $9.35, but opened at $9.97. VNET Group shares last traded at $10.09, with a volume of 4,041,143 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on VNET shares. Bank of America raised their price objective on VNET Group from $11.80 to $12.60 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of VNET Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have issued a Buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $9.96.

VNET Group Stock Up 9.8%

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.76 billion, a P/E ratio of -128.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.40 and a beta of 0.16. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $8.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $7.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.97.

VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 21st. The information technology services provider reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $339.65 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.27 billion. VNET Group had a net margin of 0.74% and a return on equity of 0.98%. VNET Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR will post -0.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

VNET Group declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program 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. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of VNET Group

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of VNET Group by 52.2% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,157 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 1,426 shares in the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC bought a new stake in VNET Group in the second quarter worth approximately $32,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC acquired a new position in VNET Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in VNET Group in the first quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of VNET Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $40,000. Institutional investors own 72.83% of the company's stock.

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.

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