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

Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $10.9167.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on UNIT. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Uniti Group from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Uniti Group from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Williams Trading set a $12.00 price objective on shares of Uniti Group in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Uniti Group from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Uniti Group from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st.

Uniti Group Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ UNIT opened at $10.14 on Friday. Uniti Group has a 12 month low of $5.30 and a 12 month high of $12.94. The company has a market cap of $2.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 1.40. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $10.18.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.68) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.45) by ($0.23). The company had revenue of $909.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $884.82 million. Uniti Group had a negative return on equity of 133.07% and a net margin of 28.68%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Uniti Group will post -2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in 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 worth $162,651,000 after buying an additional 6,494,001 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Uniti Group by 103.1% during 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 buying an additional 7,441,044 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Uniti Group by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,116,934 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $49,890,000 after buying an additional 523,054 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position 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 worth $23,207,000 after buying an additional 877,911 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.51% of the company’s stock.

Uniti Group Company Profile

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.