Zacks Research Upgrades GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) to “Strong-Buy”

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) was upgraded by Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

GDS has been the topic of several other reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of GDS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of GDS from $37.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of GDS from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $64.00 price objective on shares of GDS in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $36.00 price objective on shares of GDS in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, GDS has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $48.04.

GDS Price Performance

Shares of GDS stock opened at $32.96 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.99 and a beta of 0.39. GDS has a 1-year low of $26.50 and a 1-year high of $48.61. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $39.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.25.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last announced its earnings results on Friday, May 15th. The company reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $1.56. GDS had a net margin of 23.83% and a return on equity of 15.62%. The company had revenue of $426.13 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $436.44 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.47 earnings per share. GDS’s quarterly revenue was up 23.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that GDS will post 5.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Yixin Qian sold 10,000 shares of GDS stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.25, for a total value of $352,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 66,865 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,356,991.25. This trade represents a 13.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Judy Qing Ye sold 37,394 shares of GDS stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.21, for a total transaction of $1,354,036.74. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 7.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of GDS

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of GDS by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 7,330 shares of the company’s stock worth $295,000 after buying an additional 429 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in GDS by 25.5% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,177,301 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,723,000 after purchasing an additional 442,414 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in GDS by 73.5% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,160 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,000 after purchasing an additional 915 shares in the last quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in GDS by 640.6% in the 1st quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 780,979 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,466,000 after purchasing an additional 675,531 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new stake in GDS in the 1st quarter worth about $11,988,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.71% of the company’s stock.

About GDS

GDS Holdings Limited, founded in 2001 and headquartered in Shanghai, is a leading network-neutral data center services provider in China. The company operates a portfolio of state-of-the-art data center facilities designed to support the mission-critical IT infrastructure of cloud service providers, internet enterprises, financial institutions, and government entities. GDS was among the first Chinese providers to offer high-density colocation solutions, catering to customers with demanding computing and storage requirements.

GDS specializes in delivering scalable colocation, cross-connect, and interconnection services within its facilities, enabling clients to establish high-speed, low-latency connections to major cloud platforms and internet exchange points.