Unite Group Plc (LON:UTG) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Unite Group Plc (LON:UTG – Get Rating) has been given a consensus rating of “Buy” by the six ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is GBX 1,264 ($15.58).

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Unite Group from GBX 1,350 ($16.64) to GBX 1,300 ($16.03) and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 31st. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a GBX 1,220 ($15.04) price target on shares of Unite Group in a research note on Monday, May 9th. Berenberg Bank restated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 1,350 ($16.64) price target on shares of Unite Group in a research note on Wednesday, March 23rd. Peel Hunt restated an “add” rating and issued a GBX 1,200 ($14.79) price target on shares of Unite Group in a research note on Friday, February 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Unite Group in a report on Wednesday, May 11th.

Shares of LON:UTG opened at GBX 1,056 ($13.02) on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.52. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of GBX 1,113.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of GBX 1,080. The firm has a market cap of £4.22 billion and a PE ratio of 12.32. Unite Group has a 12-month low of GBX 934.80 ($11.52) and a 12-month high of GBX 1,250 ($15.41).

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 14th were paid a dividend of GBX 15.60 ($0.19) per share. This is a positive change from Unite Group’s previous dividend of $6.50. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 14th. This represents a yield of 1.57%. Unite Group’s payout ratio is presently 0.22%.

In other news, insider Joe Lister purchased 1,266 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 3rd. The stock was acquired at an average price of GBX 711 ($8.76) per share, for a total transaction of £9,001.26 ($11,096.23). Also, insider Richard Smith sold 386 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 642 ($7.91), for a total transaction of £2,478.12 ($3,054.88).

About Unite Group (Get Rating)

Unite Students is the UK's largest owner, manager and developer of purpose-built student accommodation serving the country's world-leading Higher Education sector. Following our successful £1.4bn acquisition of Liberty Living's UK assets in November 2019, we now provide homes to 76,000 students across 177 properties in 27 leading university towns and cities.

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