Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Raymond James

Raymond James upgraded shares of Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Raymond James currently has $8.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $6.00.

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

Uniti Group Price Performance

Shares of UNIT opened at $5.77 on Monday. Uniti Group has a one year low of $2.57 and a one year high of $6.71. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $5.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $5.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.41 billion, a PE ratio of 14.07 and a beta of 1.31.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.02. Uniti Group had a net margin of 8.82% and a negative return on equity of 4.12%. The business had revenue of $293.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $294.59 million. Analysts expect that Uniti Group will post 1.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Uniti Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Uniti Group by 0.8% during the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 62,377 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Uniti Group by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,317,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $34,754,000 after acquiring an additional 101,702 shares during the last quarter. Apollo Management Holdings L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Uniti Group by 4.6% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 231,977 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Uniti Group by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,748,895 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $15,119,000 after acquiring an additional 295,104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, King Street Capital Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Uniti Group by 66.7% during 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.51% of the company’s stock.

About Uniti Group

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.