Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Lowers Position in Uniti Group Inc. $UNIT

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. trimmed its position in shares of Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) by 41.4% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 798,848 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 563,434 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Uniti Group were worth $4,889,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. TD Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Uniti Group during the third quarter worth $1,532,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund purchased a new position in Uniti Group in the third quarter valued at $436,000. Inscription Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Uniti Group in the third quarter worth about $121,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Uniti Group during the 3rd quarter worth about $264,000. Finally, Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its stake in shares of Uniti Group by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 906,792 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,917,000 after acquiring an additional 49,458 shares in the last quarter. 87.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Uniti Group Trading Up 2.4%

Shares of Uniti Group stock opened at $8.24 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.22 billion, a PE ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.50. Uniti Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $5.30 and a twelve month high of $11.73. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $7.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $6.86.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 2nd. The real estate investment trust reported ($1.19) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.46) by ($0.73). Uniti Group had a negative return on equity of 2.52% and a net margin of 55.60%.The firm had revenue of $917.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $909.44 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.35 earnings per share. Uniti Group’s quarterly revenue was up 212.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Uniti Group Inc. will post 1.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on UNIT. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Uniti Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $11.00 price target on shares of Uniti Group in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Uniti Group from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Barclays set a $8.00 target price on Uniti Group in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Uniti Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $8.60.

About Uniti Group

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.