Traders Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT)

Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT – Get Rating) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors acquired 18,951 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 1,405% compared to the average daily volume of 1,259 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Uniti Group

In other news, CEO Kenny Gunderman bought 225,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 9th. The stock was bought at an average price of $4.37 per share, with a total value of $983,250.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,372,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,998,244.52. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Natixis Advisors L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Uniti Group by 31.3% in the 1st quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 37,929 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $522,000 after buying an additional 9,033 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in Uniti Group by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 70,320 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $985,000 after buying an additional 1,629 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Uniti Group by 57.9% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 101,997 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,403,000 after purchasing an additional 37,410 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers increased its holdings in shares of Uniti Group by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 644,474 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,868,000 after purchasing an additional 4,590 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can grew its stake in Uniti Group by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 206,675 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,917,000 after acquiring an additional 2,481 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

UNIT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Uniti Group from $9.00 to $8.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Uniti Group from $15.00 to $9.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 27th. Raymond James reduced their target price on shares of Uniti Group from $12.00 to $8.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 1st. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Uniti Group from $9.00 to $7.25 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Uniti Group from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $7.46.

Uniti Group Price Performance

Shares of UNIT stock opened at $3.97 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $5.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $6.75. Uniti Group has a 12 month low of $3.89 and a 12 month high of $14.25. The company has a market capitalization of $941.88 million, a PE ratio of -36.09 and a beta of 1.31.

Uniti Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 14th. Investors of record on Friday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 15.11%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 30th. Uniti Group’s payout ratio is currently -545.40%.

About Uniti Group

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Uniti Group, Inc is a real estate investment trust company, which is engaged in the acquisition and construction of mission infrastructure in the communications industry. It operates through the following business segments: Leasing, Fiber Infrastructure, Towers, Consumer CLEC, and Corporate. The Leasing segment represents the real estate investment trust operations of the company and includes the results from leasing business, Uniti leasing, which engages in the acquisition of mission-critical communications assets and leasing them to anchor customers on either and exclusive or shared-tenant basis.