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

Key Points

• Seven brokerages give Uniti Group a consensus rating of Hold (five holds, one buy, one strong buy), with an average 12‑month price objective of $7.86.
• Large institutions have been increasing positions—Vanguard and T. Rowe Price added millions of shares—and institutional investors now own about 87.51% of the company.
• Uniti reported Q4 EPS of ($1.19), missing estimates by $0.73, while revenue of $917.3M beat expectations and rose 212.8% year‑over‑year.

Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT - Get Free Report) has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from the seven brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $7.86.

UNIT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut Uniti Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Sunday, March 1st. Raymond James Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating and issued a $11.00 price target on shares of Uniti Group in a report on Tuesday. Barclays set a $8.00 price objective on shares of Uniti Group in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Uniti Group from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Uniti Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Uniti Group by 38.9% in 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 purchasing 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 fourth 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in 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 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 buying an additional 1,600,000 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted 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 valued at $23,207,000 after acquiring an additional 877,911 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.51% of the company's stock.

Uniti Group Trading Up 2.8%

Uniti Group stock opened at $8.06 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.50. Uniti Group has a 1-year low of $5.30 and a 1-year high of $11.73. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $7.69 and a 200-day moving average of $6.82.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The real estate investment trust reported ($1.19) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.46) by ($0.73). The business had revenue of $917.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $909.44 million. Uniti Group had a net margin of 55.60% and a negative return on equity of 2.52%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 212.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Uniti Group will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.