VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) Trading Down 5.8% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• VNET Group's stock dropped 5.8% to $9.03, with trading volume significantly declining to 1,488,284 shares, showing less investor activity compared to its average daily volume.
• Analysts have mixed opinions on VNET Group, with Bank of America raising its target price to $12.60 while Wall Street Zen downgraded the stock to "sell"; however, the average rating remains "buy" with a target price of $9.96.
• The company reported a net loss in earnings per share for the last quarter, missing expectations, while it has also initiated a share buyback program, indicating confidence in its stock's value.

VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded down 5.8% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $8.92 and last traded at $9.03. 1,488,284 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 7,750,768 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.59.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VNET has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of VNET Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 23rd. Bank of America raised their target price on VNET Group from $11.80 to $12.60 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have issued a Buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $9.96.

VNET Group Trading Down 3.2%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.97. The stock has a market cap of $2.59 billion, a PE ratio of -120.38, a PEG ratio of 6.34 and a beta of 0.16. The business has a 50-day moving average of $8.33 and a 200 day moving average of $7.42.

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

VNET Group declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Friday, June 27th that authorizes the company to buyback $0.00 in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VNET Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in VNET Group in the second quarter valued at $54,199,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new position in shares of VNET Group in the 1st quarter worth about $27,463,000. Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltd acquired a new position in shares of VNET Group in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,210,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in shares of VNET Group by 674.8% during the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 3,343,088 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $23,067,000 after purchasing an additional 2,911,604 shares during the period. Finally, Infini Capital Management Ltd increased its position in VNET Group by 39.2% during the 2nd quarter. Infini Capital Management Ltd now owns 9,758,083 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $67,331,000 after purchasing an additional 2,747,661 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.