Why GDS Holdings Stock Soared 17% Higher on Wednesday

GDS Holdings (NASDAQ: GDS) notched a convincing pair of beats in its latest quarterly-earnings report, and investors were all too happy to reward the company for this feat. They bid the price of its American depositary shares (ADSs) up sharply after news of the results made headlines on Wednesday, to the point where they closed the day more than 17% higher in price. That compared very well to the 0.4% uptick of the S&P 500 index on Hump Day.

An estimates-topping second quarter

For its second quarter, GDS managed to increase its net revenue by 14% year over year to more than 2.83 billion yuan ($397 million). If one-time revenue items in the same quarter of 2023 are excluded, that growth rate rises to nearly 18%.

There was also encouraging movement on the bottom line, where the data-center operator's net loss deepened only slightly. This came in at almost 232 million yuan ($33 million), against the year-ago period's 225 million yuan ($32 million) deficit. On a per-ADS basis, the latest net-loss figure was 1.30 yuan ($0.18).

Regardless of trajectory, both line items topped the average analyst estimates. Prognosticators tracking GDS stock forecast that the niche tech company would earn 2.79 billion yuan ($391 million) on the top line and post a much steeper per-ADS net loss of 1.82 yuan ($0.26).

Selected guidance reaffirmed

GDS also reaffirmed its guidance for the entirety of 2024. It believes its total revenue will be 11.34 billion yuan to 11.76 billion yuan ($1.59 billion to $1.65 billion), with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) falling at 4.95 billion yuan to 5.15 billion yuan ($694 million to $722 million). It did not provide any guidance for net profit or loss.

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