GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) Stock Falls 5.5% – Should You Sell?

Shares of GDS Holdings (NASDAQ:GDS) were down 5.5% on Friday. The stock traded as low as $27.97 and last traded at $28.1650. Approximately 255,591 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 88% from the average daily volume of 2,046,337 shares. The stock had previously closed at $29.80.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GDS shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of GDS in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $51.00 price target on shares of GDS in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of GDS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 6th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of GDS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.12.

GDS Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $5.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.94 and a beta of 0.42. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $32.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22.

GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. GDS had a return on equity of 17.94% and a net margin of 30.70%.The business had revenue of $454.51 million for the quarter. Analysts expect that GDS Holdings will post 2.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GDS. Sachem Head Capital Management LP grew its holdings in GDS by 45.0% during the fourth quarter. Sachem Head Capital Management LP now owns 9,300,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $324,570,000 after purchasing an additional 2,885,000 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in GDS in the first quarter valued at approximately $68,092,000. Carrhae Capital LLP lifted its position in shares of GDS by 51.1% in the second quarter. Carrhae Capital LLP now owns 3,300,419 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,112,000 after buying an additional 1,115,757 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in shares of GDS by 294.4% in the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,220,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,746,000 after buying an additional 911,191 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Electron Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of GDS by 640.6% during the 1st quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 780,979 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,466,000 after acquiring an additional 675,531 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.71% of the company’s stock.

About GDS

GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: GDS) is a developer and operator of data centers. The company provides data center infrastructure and related services to cloud service providers, internet companies, financial institutions, telecommunications carriers and multinational corporations.

Its services include wholesale and retail colocation, managed data center services, interconnection and cloud connectivity. GDS designs, builds and operates facilities intended to support customers’ critical information technology infrastructure, including cloud computing, data storage and other high-performance computing requirements.

Founded in 2001, GDS has historically focused on serving customers in China through data centers in major economic and technology centers.