Natixis Boosts Stake in Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT)

Natixis increased its holdings in Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT - Free Report) by 42.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 839,099 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after acquiring an additional 251,940 shares during the period. Natixis owned about 0.34% of Uniti Group worth $4,615,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Uniti Group by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 462,337 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $2,543,000 after purchasing an additional 27,232 shares during the last quarter. Optimize Financial Inc purchased a new position in shares of Uniti Group during the 4th quarter valued at $156,000. Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Uniti Group by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 134,639 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $741,000 after acquiring an additional 6,859 shares during the period. Quinn Opportunity Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Uniti Group in the 4th quarter worth about $3,249,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Uniti Group during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,418,000. 87.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Uniti Group Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:UNIT traded down $0.04 during trading on Friday, hitting $4.76. 1,226,189 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,698,426. Uniti Group Inc. has a 52-week low of $2.57 and a 52-week high of $6.31. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $4.98 and a 200 day moving average of $5.41. The company has a market cap of $1.16 billion, a PE ratio of 11.61 and a beta of 1.57.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $293.32 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $294.59 million. Uniti Group had a negative return on equity of 4.12% and a net margin of 8.82%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Uniti Group Inc. will post 1.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Raymond James upgraded shares of Uniti Group from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $6.00 to $8.00 in a research note on Monday, February 24th.

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.