Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) Rating Lowered to Strong Sell at Zacks Research

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) was downgraded by Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Uniti Group from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Uniti Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Uniti Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 1st. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $11.00 price objective on shares of Uniti Group in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays set a $8.00 target price on shares of Uniti Group in a report on Thursday, January 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $7.86.

Uniti Group Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of UNIT stock traded down $0.01 during trading on Thursday, hitting $8.05. The company had a trading volume of 2,410,353 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,467,566. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $7.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $6.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.50. Uniti Group has a 52 week low of $5.30 and a 52 week 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) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.46) by ($0.73). Uniti Group had a negative return on equity of 2.52% and a net margin of 55.60%.The company had revenue of $917.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $909.44 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. Uniti Group’s quarterly revenue was up 212.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Uniti Group will post 1.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Uniti Group by 103.1% during the 4th 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 buying an additional 7,441,044 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Uniti Group by 38.9% during 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 last quarter. King Street Capital Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $25,920,000 after purchasing an additional 1,600,000 shares during the period. Penn Capital Management Company LLC bought a new stake in shares of Uniti Group in the fourth quarter worth about $8,900,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in Uniti Group by 2,208.3% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 995,163 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,976,000 after purchasing an additional 952,050 shares during the period. 87.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.