Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $746,000 in Uniti Group Inc. $UNIT

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 79,500 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $746,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of UNIT. Contrarian Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in Uniti Group during the 3rd quarter worth $2,783,000. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Uniti Group by 2,208.3% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 995,163 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,976,000 after purchasing an additional 952,050 shares during the last quarter. Thematics Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Uniti Group during the third quarter worth about $3,900,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Uniti Group by 38.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,202,733 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $162,651,000 after purchasing an additional 6,494,001 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mizuho Markets Americas LLC boosted its position in shares of Uniti Group by 38.2% in the 4th quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC now owns 398,246 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,792,000 after purchasing an additional 110,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on UNIT. Williams Trading set a $12.00 price objective on Uniti Group in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Uniti Group from $9.00 to $11.75 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Uniti Group from $6.50 to $7.50 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Zacks Research raised shares of Uniti Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Uniti Group from $8.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.14.

Uniti Group Trading Up 1.0%

UNIT traded up $0.11 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $11.15. 42,740 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,373,048. Uniti Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $5.30 and a 1 year high of $12.94. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $11.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.41. The firm has a market cap of $2.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.40.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.34) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.35) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $987.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $930.08 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 236.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Uniti Group Inc. will post -1.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Uniti Group Profile

Uniti Group Inc is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and acquires communications infrastructure assets across the United States. Established in September 2015 through a spin-off from Windstream Holdings, Uniti Group focuses on leasing fiber, small cell networks, cell towers and related infrastructure to service providers, wireless carriers and other enterprises requiring high-capacity connectivity. The company’s assets are designed to support the growing data demands of residential, business and governmental customers, with an emphasis on long-term contractual lease arrangements.

Uniti’s portfolio encompasses an extensive fiber network that spans metropolitan and rural markets, as well as a portfolio of wireless towers and small cell nodes that facilitate mobile network densification and help carriers deploy 5G services.