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) was down 5.8% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $8.92 and last traded at $9.03. Approximately 1,488,284 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 7,750,768 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.59.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on VNET shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of VNET Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, August 23rd. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of VNET Group from $11.80 to $12.60 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have assigned a Buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $9.96.

VNET Group Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, a PE ratio of -124.38, a PEG ratio of 6.27 and a beta of 0.16. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $8.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $7.43.

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 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.27 billion. VNET Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR will post -0.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

VNET Group declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Friday, June 27th that permits the company to buyback $0.00 in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VNET Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VNET. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of VNET Group by 52.2% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,157 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 1,426 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its stake in shares of VNET Group by 16.8% during the 2nd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 14,600 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $101,000 after purchasing an additional 2,100 shares during the last quarter. Bingham Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of VNET Group by 24.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bingham Private Wealth LLC now owns 13,050 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $90,000 after purchasing an additional 2,547 shares during the last quarter. Main Management ETF Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of VNET Group by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Main Management ETF Advisors LLC now owns 168,548 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,163,000 after purchasing an additional 2,736 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Personal CFO Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of VNET Group by 9.3% during the 2nd quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 34,505 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $238,000 after purchasing an additional 2,933 shares during the last quarter. 72.83% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.