VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) Shares Up 6.7% - Still a Buy?

VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VNET - Get Free Report) shares traded up 6.7% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $7.19 and last traded at $7.06. 2,747,476 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 44% from the average session volume of 4,933,142 shares. The stock had previously closed at $6.61.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VNET has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of VNET Group from $16.10 to $20.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded VNET Group from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, June 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $9.30.

VNET Group Price Performance

The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $6.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $7.16. The company has a market capitalization of $2.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -775.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The information technology services provider reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by ($0.11). VNET Group had a return on equity of 2.11% and a net margin of 1.66%. The company had revenue of $309.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.22 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.28) earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that VNET Group, Inc. - Unsponsored ADR will post -0.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

VNET Group announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan 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 buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Triata Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in VNET Group in the 4th quarter worth about $47,377,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new position in shares of VNET Group during the 1st quarter worth $27,463,000. Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltd purchased a new position in VNET Group during the first quarter worth about $27,210,000. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in shares of VNET Group by 2,304,491.9% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,705,398 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $13,985,000 after buying an additional 1,705,324 shares in the last quarter. Finally, D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of VNET Group during the fourth quarter worth about $7,183,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.83% of the company's stock.

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.