Northern Trust Corp Purchases 295,104 Shares of Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT)

Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT - Free Report) by 12.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,748,895 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after buying an additional 295,104 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned approximately 1.13% of Uniti Group worth $15,119,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Uniti Group by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,344,312 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $7,394,000 after purchasing an additional 51,241 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Uniti Group by 2.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 106,104 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $572,000 after purchasing an additional 2,328 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Uniti Group by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,937,013 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $43,654,000 after buying an additional 62,377 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its holdings in shares of Uniti Group by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 255,119 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,402,000 after purchasing an additional 2,397 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. grew its stake in Uniti Group by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 589,789 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $3,244,000 after buying an additional 49,537 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.51% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on UNIT. Citigroup reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $5.30 price objective on shares of Uniti Group in a report on Friday, May 16th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Uniti Group from $5.00 to $4.50 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Raymond James raised Uniti Group from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $6.00 to $8.00 in a research report on Monday, February 24th.

Uniti Group Price Performance

Shares of Uniti Group stock traded down $0.08 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $4.42. 96,973 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,517,223. Uniti Group Inc. has a 12-month low of $2.57 and a 12-month high of $6.31. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $5.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.77 and a beta of 1.59.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.35. Uniti Group had a net margin of 8.82% and a negative return on equity of 4.12%. The company had revenue of $293.91 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $295.39 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS. Uniti Group's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Uniti Group Inc. will post 1.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Uniti Group

Uniti Group, Inc is a real estate investment trust company, which engages in the acquisition, construction, and leasing of properties. It operates through the following business segments: Uniti Leasing, Uniti Fiber, and Corporate. The Uniti Leasing segment involves mission-critical communications assets on exclusive or shared-tenant basis, and dark fiber network.