Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) by 3.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,392,105 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 47,793 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Uniti Group were worth $7,016,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of UNIT. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in Uniti Group by 53.9% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 32,531 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $170,000 after purchasing an additional 11,395 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its position in shares of Uniti Group by 309.5% in the 1st quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 218,813 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,103,000 after acquiring an additional 165,383 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Uniti Group by 30.0% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,130,604 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,218,000 after acquiring an additional 260,740 shares in the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Uniti Group by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 589,789 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,244,000 after acquiring an additional 49,537 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Uniti Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,418,000. 87.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Uniti Group Price Performance

Shares of Uniti Group stock opened at $4.53 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $4.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4.90. The company has a market capitalization of $1.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.42 and a beta of 1.46. Uniti Group Inc. has a 1-year low of $3.49 and a 1-year high of $6.31.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.35. The firm had revenue of $293.91 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $295.39 million. Uniti Group had a negative return on equity of 2.60% and a net margin of 5.45%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Uniti Group Inc. will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on UNIT. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Uniti Group from $5.00 to $4.50 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and set a $5.30 price objective on shares of Uniti Group in a research report on Friday, May 16th.

Uniti Group 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.