Sterling Capital Management LLC Acquires 6,859 Shares of Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT)

Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) by 5.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 134,639 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,859 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC owned 0.06% of Uniti Group worth $741,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of UNIT. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Uniti Group by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,937,013 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $43,654,000 after purchasing an additional 62,377 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Uniti Group by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,317,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $34,754,000 after purchasing an additional 101,702 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Uniti Group by 30.1% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,929,472 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,612,000 after acquiring an additional 446,168 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Uniti Group by 42.0% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,787,257 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $9,830,000 after purchasing an additional 529,050 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Uniti Group by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,764,803 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $9,706,000 after purchasing an additional 96,245 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on UNIT. Raymond James upgraded Uniti Group from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $6.00 to $8.00 in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Uniti Group from $5.50 to $6.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd.

Uniti Group Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of UNIT stock opened at $4.56 on Thursday. Uniti Group Inc. has a 12 month low of $2.57 and a 12 month high of $6.31. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $5.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $5.45. The firm has a market cap of $1.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.12 and a beta of 1.57.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $293.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $294.59 million. Uniti Group had a net margin of 8.82% and a negative return on equity of 4.12%. Sell-side analysts predict that Uniti Group Inc. will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.