Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) Cut to “Strong Sell” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research cut shares of Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research report released on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen cut Uniti Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and set a $5.30 price objective on shares of Uniti Group in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Uniti Group from $4.50 to $7.50 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $6.70.

Uniti Group Price Performance

NASDAQ UNIT opened at $6.94 on Wednesday. Uniti Group has a 1-year low of $5.68 and a 1-year high of $12.62. The company has a market capitalization of $1.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.22 and a beta of 1.50. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $5.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $5.10.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $300.73 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $304.06 million. Uniti Group had a net margin of 2.96% and a negative return on equity of 1.43%. Uniti Group’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.34 EPS. Uniti Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Uniti Group will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Uniti Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Uniti Group by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,996,734 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $186,464,000 after purchasing an additional 151,070 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management increased its position in Uniti Group by 0.7% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 6,689,243 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $33,714,000 after buying an additional 45,724 shares during the last quarter. King Street Capital Management L.P. increased its position in Uniti Group by 36.4% during the second 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 during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Uniti Group by 23.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,604,599 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $23,207,000 after buying an additional 877,911 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in Uniti Group by 36.5% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 3,290,053 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $14,213,000 after buying an additional 880,394 shares during the last quarter. 87.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.