Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven research 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 target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $10.9167.

UNIT has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group set a $12.00 price objective on Uniti Group in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Uniti Group from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Uniti Group from $8.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Wall Street Zen cut Uniti Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday, March 1st. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Uniti Group from $9.00 to $11.75 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Uniti Group

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 6,494,001 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its position 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 worth $102,743,000 after acquiring an additional 7,441,044 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Uniti Group by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,116,934 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $49,890,000 after acquiring an additional 523,054 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Uniti Group by 23.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,604,599 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $23,207,000 after acquiring an additional 877,911 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Uniti Group by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,352,729 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,518,000 after acquiring an additional 323,845 shares during the last quarter. 87.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Uniti Group Stock Performance

Shares of UNIT opened at $11.64 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.83 billion, a PE ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $11.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $9.06. Uniti Group has a 12-month low of $5.30 and a 12-month high of $12.94.

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