# GDS Holdings (GDS.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/GDS

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:28:43.511Z. Financial observations: FY2014–FY2025.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: CNY.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $25.32 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 0 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- more than 2 net loss years

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 0

- Years with a net loss: 8

- Operating margin variation: 2.48×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -0.04×

- FY2017: 0.05×

- FY2018: 0.06×

- FY2019: 0.12×

- FY2020: 0.12×

- FY2021: 0.07×

- FY2022: 0.06×

- FY2023: -0.25×

- FY2024: 0.11×

- FY2025: 0.13×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: 1.0%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -0.8%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 1.2 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 22.7%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 21.5%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 101.2%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -2.2%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -0.8%

- FY2017: 0.8%

- FY2018: 0.9%

- FY2019: 2.0%

- FY2020: 1.7%

- FY2021: 1.0%

- FY2022: 0.8%

- FY2023: -3.7%

- FY2024: 1.7%

- FY2025: 1.9%

### economics: fail

- incremental invested capital return below threshold

- working capital as a share of revenue rose more than 10pp and ends positive

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: CNY 857M

- Net income, five-year total: CNY -2.5B

- Return on incremental invested capital: 3.6%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: 4.6 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: 33.1 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 3.1%

Chart: Owner earnings · five years; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: CNY -1.2B

- FY2022: CNY -1.3B

- FY2023: CNY -4.3B

- FY2024: CNY 6.7B

- FY2025: CNY 950M

### management: fail

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2016 to 2025 (9 years)

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks unrelated to price (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: 0.8% vs 1.7%

- Per-share earnings: -3.62 to 4.62 (three-year endpoint medians)

- five-year and ten-year diluted share growth both above threshold

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: 22.4%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 5.6%

- Market cap gain: CNY 46B

- Cumulative retained earnings: CNY -4.2B

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 22.4%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 5.6%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2016

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value change: CNY 8.24

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: CNY -3.62

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: CNY 4.62

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): -1.00

- Average buyback yield: 11.4%

- Buyback history: 2 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- Acquisition spending: CNY 12B

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: CNY -4.7B

- ROIC, first three-year median: 0.8%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 1.7%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: CNY -7.39

- FY2017: CNY -3.33

- FY2018: CNY -3.48

- FY2019: CNY -3.21

- FY2020: CNY -4.37

- FY2021: CNY -6.54

- FY2022: CNY -6.93

- FY2023: CNY -23.38

- FY2024: CNY 17.92

- FY2025: CNY 4.62

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -3.0%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 0.84×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 8.4%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 3.54×

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.21×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -1.5%

- FY2017: -1.2%

- FY2018: -2.0%

- FY2019: -2.3%

- FY2020: -1.8%

- FY2021: -3.3%

- FY2022: -5.5%

- FY2023: -8.5%

- FY2024: 4.5%

- FY2025: -3.0%

## Holders

- [Seth Klarman](https://gigainvestors.com/BAUPOST): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

- [Dennis Hong](https://gigainvestors.com/SP): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

Down 57% since Oct 2021 · sales +10.8%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:58:48.479Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

### Sales · FY2024–2025

sales +10.8%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1526125/000110465926051006/gds-20251231x20f.htm; observed 2026-04-29.

- FY2016: CNY 1.1B 

- FY2017: CNY 1.6B 

- FY2018: CNY 2.8B 

- FY2019: CNY 4.1B 

- FY2020: CNY 5.7B 

- FY2021: CNY 7.8B 

- FY2022: CNY 9.3B 

- FY2023: CNY 10.0B 

- FY2024: CNY 10B 

- FY2025: CNY 11B 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 22.6%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1526125/000110465926051006/gds-20251231x20f.htm; observed 2026-04-29.

- FY2016: 25.2% 

- FY2017: 25.3% 

- FY2018: 22.3% 

- FY2019: 25.3% 

- FY2020: 27.0% 

- FY2021: 22.8% 

- FY2022: 20.8% 

- FY2023: 19.3% 

- FY2024: 21.5% 

- FY2025: 22.6% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in information technology services; annual sales are CNY 11.4 billion.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1526125/000110465926051006/gds-20251231x20f.htm (filed 2026-04-29); FY2025: revenue 11432274000; grossProfit 2585415000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); GDS.US: GDS Holdings Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development and operation of data centers in the People's Republic of China. It provides colocation services comprising critical facilities space, customer-available power, racks, and cooling; managed hosting services, including business continuity and disaster recovery, network management, data storage, system security, operating system, database, and server middleware services; managed cloud services; and consulting services. The company serves cloud service providers, large Internet companies, financial institutions, telecommunications carriers and IT service providers, large domestic private sector, and multinational corporations. GDS Holdings Limited was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 19.3% to 22.6% during 2023–25; it earns 1% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-29); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 19.3%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-29); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 21.5%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1526125/000110465926051006/gds-20251231x20f.htm (filed 2026-04-29); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 22.6%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-29); 10-year return on capital observations [[2016,-0.008116593167753067],[2017,0.008455647586666245],[2018,0.009235308617971989],[2019,0.01980617418717997],[2020,0.01739897518130335],[2021,0.010240183983669505],[2022,0.00837950722842232],[2023,-0.03653529266698594],[2024,0.01677731976779877],[2025,0.01939651621211435]]; median 0.009737746300820747. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Earns 3.6% on new investment; paid dividends in 10 of 10 years.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-29); FY2024: growth capex 0; upkeep 3169287; owner earnings 6653791713. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1526125/000110465926051006/gds-20251231x20f.htm (filed 2026-04-29); FY2025: growth capex 1125366000; upkeep 3567729000; owner earnings 949643000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 1.1850411154507536.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-29); Incremental return on capital 0.036138341169292154, from the economics test's unchanged annual inputs.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-29); Dividend observations: [[2016,76502000],[2017,25014000],[2018,25014000],[2019,25014000],[2020,65489000],[2021,49221000],[2022,51578000],[2023,53923000],[2024,54169],[2025,54124000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 1.5% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); GDS.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 1.472 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price is 3 times annual sales.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-29); Closing price 25.32 USD; reporting-to-trading FX 0.14944; FY2025 annual sales per share 55.61266205266947; price multiple 3.0466541597919887. FY2025 cash earnings/share 4.619568707825162. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-11: $10.02 per share

- 2016-12: $8.60 per share

- 2017-01: $8.26 per share

- 2017-02: $7.77 per share

- 2017-03: $8.27 per share

- 2017-04: $8.12 per share

- 2017-05: $7.76 per share

- 2017-06: $9.27 per share

- 2017-07: $9.36 per share

- 2017-08: $9.35 per share

- 2017-09: $11.26 per share

- 2017-10: $15.70 per share

- 2017-11: $20.45 per share

- 2017-12: $22.53 per share

- 2018-01: $28.54 per share

- 2018-02: $26.20 per share

- 2018-03: $27.45 per share

- 2018-04: $29.17 per share

- 2018-05: $37.81 per share

- 2018-06: $40.09 per share

- 2018-07: $21.83 per share

- 2018-08: $38.17 per share

- 2018-09: $35.13 per share

- 2018-10: $23.47 per share

- 2018-11: $29.49 per share

- 2018-12: $23.09 per share

- 2019-01: $28.40 per share

- 2019-02: $33.27 per share

- 2019-03: $35.69 per share

- 2019-04: $39.13 per share

- 2019-05: $32.49 per share

- 2019-06: $37.57 per share

- 2019-07: $41.18 per share

- 2019-08: $40.34 per share

- 2019-09: $40.08 per share

- 2019-10: $41.68 per share

- 2019-11: $46.82 per share

- 2019-12: $51.58 per share

- 2020-01: $51.71 per share

- 2020-02: $57.97 per share

- 2020-03: $57.97 per share

- 2020-04: $57.32 per share

- 2020-05: $57.00 per share

- 2020-06: $79.66 per share

- 2020-07: $80.29 per share

- 2020-08: $80.94 per share

- 2020-09: $81.83 per share

- 2020-10: $84.04 per share

- 2020-11: $90.03 per share

- 2020-12: $93.64 per share

- 2021-01: $103.56 per share

- 2021-02: $102.16 per share

- 2021-03: $81.09 per share

- 2021-04: $82.97 per share

- 2021-05: $75.22 per share

- 2021-06: $78.49 per share

- 2021-07: $58.96 per share

- 2021-08: $58.48 per share

- 2021-09: $56.61 per share

- 2021-10: $59.40 per share

- 2021-11: $56.04 per share

- 2021-12: $47.16 per share

- 2022-01: $43.88 per share

- 2022-02: $44.52 per share

- 2022-03: $39.25 per share

- 2022-04: $31.42 per share

- 2022-05: $27.99 per share

- 2022-06: $33.39 per share

- 2022-07: $27.68 per share

- 2022-08: $27.24 per share

- 2022-09: $17.66 per share

- 2022-10: $8.63 per share

- 2022-11: $15.90 per share

- 2022-12: $20.62 per share

- 2023-01: $23.35 per share

- 2023-02: $19.25 per share

- 2023-03: $18.66 per share

- 2023-04: $15.53 per share

- 2023-05: $9.76 per share

- 2023-06: $10.99 per share

- 2023-07: $13.28 per share

- 2023-08: $11.96 per share

- 2023-09: $10.95 per share

- 2023-10: $10.30 per share

- 2023-11: $10.25 per share

- 2023-12: $9.12 per share

- 2024-01: $5.42 per share

- 2024-02: $6.83 per share

- 2024-03: $6.65 per share

- 2024-04: $8.16 per share

- 2024-05: $8.02 per share

- 2024-06: $9.29 per share

- 2024-07: $11.23 per share

- 2024-08: $17.03 per share

- 2024-09: $20.40 per share

- 2024-10: $21.91 per share

- 2024-11: $19.69 per share

- 2024-12: $23.76 per share

- 2025-01: $21.71 per share

- 2025-02: $38.05 per share

- 2025-03: $25.33 per share

- 2025-04: $25.21 per share

- 2025-05: $23.69 per share

- 2025-06: $30.57 per share

- 2025-07: $36.07 per share

- 2025-08: $34.56 per share

- 2025-09: $38.70 per share

- 2025-10: $35.70 per share

- 2025-11: $33.97 per share

- 2025-12: $34.90 per share

- 2026-01: $44.69 per share

- 2026-02: $41.31 per share

- 2026-03: $40.29 per share

- 2026-04: $42.28 per share

- 2026-05: $35.45 per share

- 2026-06: $30.03 per share

- 2026-07: $32.74 per share

- 2026-08: $31.85 per share

- 2026-09: $31.23 per share

- 2026-10: $30.97 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

Prior published observations retained from 2026-10-15T06:34:25.653Z where newer inputs omit a numeric field or fiscal period.

## Sources

[Original 20-F filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1526125/000110465926051006/gds-20251231x20f.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-04-29.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.