Raymond James Upgrades Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) to Strong-Buy

Raymond James upgraded shares of Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $8.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $6.00.

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Uniti Group from $5.50 to $6.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd.

Uniti Group Price Performance

NASDAQ UNIT opened at $5.70 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $5.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $5.43. Uniti Group has a 52-week low of $2.57 and a 52-week high of $6.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.90 and a beta of 1.31.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $293.32 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $294.59 million. Uniti Group had a negative return on equity of 4.12% and a net margin of 8.82%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Uniti Group will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Uniti Group

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Uniti Group by 0.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 62,377 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Uniti Group by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,317,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $34,754,000 after buying an additional 101,702 shares during the last quarter. Apollo Management Holdings L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Uniti Group by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Apollo Management Holdings L.P. now owns 5,239,917 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $28,820,000 after buying an additional 231,977 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Uniti Group by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,748,895 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $15,119,000 after acquiring an additional 295,104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, King Street Capital Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Uniti Group by 66.7% in the 4th quarter. King Street Capital Management L.P. now owns 2,600,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $14,300,000 after acquiring an additional 1,040,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.51% of the company’s stock.

Uniti Group Company Profile

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.