Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $10.9167.

UNIT has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group set a $12.00 target price on shares of Uniti Group in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Uniti Group from $8.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Uniti Group from $8.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $11.00 target price on shares of Uniti Group in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Uniti Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 1st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Uniti Group

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of UNIT. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Uniti Group by 103.1% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,656,558 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $102,743,000 after acquiring an additional 7,441,044 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Uniti Group by 38.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,202,733 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $162,651,000 after acquiring an additional 6,494,001 shares during the period. Penn Capital Management Company LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Uniti Group in the fourth quarter valued at $8,900,000. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Uniti Group by 2,208.3% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 995,163 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,976,000 after acquiring an additional 952,050 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Uniti Group by 23.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,604,599 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $23,207,000 after acquiring an additional 877,911 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.51% of the company’s stock.

Uniti Group Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ UNIT opened at $11.64 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $11.41 and a 200 day moving average of $9.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.40. Uniti Group has a 12-month low of $5.30 and a 12-month high of $12.94.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.34) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.35) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $987.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $930.08 million. Uniti Group had a net margin of 39.61% and a negative return on equity of 2.52%. The company’s revenue was up 236.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.35 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Uniti Group will post -1.56 EPS for the current year.

About Uniti Group

Uniti Group Inc is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and acquires communications infrastructure assets across the United States. Established in September 2015 through a spin-off from Windstream Holdings, Uniti Group focuses on leasing fiber, small cell networks, cell towers and related infrastructure to service providers, wireless carriers and other enterprises requiring high-capacity connectivity. The company’s assets are designed to support the growing data demands of residential, business and governmental customers, with an emphasis on long-term contractual lease arrangements.

Uniti’s portfolio encompasses an extensive fiber network that spans metropolitan and rural markets, as well as a portfolio of wireless towers and small cell nodes that facilitate mobile network densification and help carriers deploy 5G services.