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

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) was upgraded by analysts at Raymond James from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has a $8.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their previous target price of $6.00. Raymond James’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 35.59% from the stock’s previous close.

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

Uniti Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:UNIT opened at $5.90 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $5.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $5.43. Uniti Group has a 52-week low of $2.57 and a 52-week high of $6.71. The company has a market cap of $1.44 billion, a PE ratio of 14.39 and a beta of 1.31.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $293.32 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $294.59 million. Uniti Group had a net margin of 8.82% and a negative return on equity of 4.12%. On average, research analysts predict that Uniti Group will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Uniti Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Signaturefd LLC increased its holdings in Uniti Group by 51.3% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 8,460 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 2,870 shares during the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Uniti Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $64,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Uniti Group during the 4th quarter worth about $68,000. Pitcairn Co. bought a new stake in shares of Uniti Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $69,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Uniti Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $70,000. 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.