Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) Rating Lowered to “Sell” at Wall Street Zen

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report issued on Sunday.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Uniti Group from $7.50 to $7.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Barclays set a $8.00 price objective on shares of Uniti Group in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Uniti Group in a research report on Monday, December 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $6.83.

Uniti Group Stock Up 7.0%

UNIT opened at $7.83 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $7.65 and a 200-day moving average of $6.80. Uniti Group has a 12-month low of $5.30 and a 12-month high of $11.73. The stock has a market cap of $1.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.50.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 2nd. The real estate investment trust reported ($1.19) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.39) by ($0.80). The company had revenue of $917.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $909.44 million. Uniti Group had a net margin of 97.46% and a negative return on equity of 2.52%. Uniti Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 212.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Uniti Group will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Uniti Group

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in UNIT. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 7,441,044 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 last quarter. King Street Capital Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Uniti Group by 36.4% during the 2nd 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 buying an additional 1,600,000 shares in the last quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC acquired a new position in shares of Uniti Group during the 4th quarter worth $8,900,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $6,976,000 after buying an additional 952,050 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.