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

Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation, one has issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $8.60.

A number of analysts recently commented on UNIT shares. Zacks Research cut Uniti Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Uniti Group from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Uniti Group in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $11.00 price objective on shares of Uniti Group in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Uniti Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday, March 1st.

Uniti Group Trading Up 2.8%

NASDAQ:UNIT opened at $8.10 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $1.94 billion, a PE ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $7.01. Uniti Group has a 12 month low of $5.30 and a 12 month high of $11.73.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The real estate investment trust reported ($1.19) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.46) by ($0.73). The firm had revenue of $917.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $909.44 million. Uniti Group had a net margin of 55.60% and a negative return on equity of 2.52%. Uniti Group’s quarterly revenue was up 212.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Uniti Group will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Uniti Group by 38.9% during the 4th 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. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Uniti Group by 103.1% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,656,558 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $102,743,000 after purchasing an additional 7,441,044 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Uniti Group by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,116,934 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $49,890,000 after purchasing an additional 523,054 shares in the last quarter. King Street Capital Management L.P. lifted its position in Uniti Group by 36.4% during the second quarter. King Street Capital Management L.P. now owns 6,000,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $25,920,000 after purchasing an additional 1,600,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Uniti Group by 23.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 877,911 shares during the period. 87.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.