VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) Stock Price Down 10.6% - Should You Sell?

Key Points

• VNET Group's stock experienced a significant decline of 10.6%, trading as low as $7.29 following an average session volume drop of 72%.
• Wall Street analysts have a consensus rating of "Buy" for VNET Group, with a target price of $9.30, despite the recent price drop.
• The company reported a miss in earnings per share, posting ($0.12) compared to expectations, and its revenue was substantially below the consensus estimate of $2.22 billion.

VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report)'s share price traded down 10.6% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $7.29 and last traded at $7.43. 2,289,068 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 8,135,723 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.31.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

VNET Group Trading Down 9.6%

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $6.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $7.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.02 billion, a P/E ratio of -755.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.14. 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 net margin of 1.66% and a return on equity of 2.11%. The company had revenue of $309.52 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.28) earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR will post -0.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

VNET Group announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Friday, June 27th that authorizes the company to repurchase $0.00 in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VNET Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in VNET Group by 111.0% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 81,197 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $670,000 after buying an additional 42,710 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new position in VNET Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $66,000. Cetera Investment Advisers acquired a new position in VNET Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $102,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in VNET Group in the first quarter valued at approximately $207,000. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in VNET Group by 229.3% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,093 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 4,939 shares during the period. 72.83% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About VNET Group

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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