Traders Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT)

Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT – Get Rating) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 18,951 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 1,405% compared to the average daily volume of 1,259 put options.

Uniti Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ UNIT opened at $3.97 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $941.88 million, a P/E ratio of -36.09 and a beta of 1.31. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $5.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $6.75. Uniti Group has a 52-week low of $3.89 and a 52-week high of $14.25.

Uniti Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 31st will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 15.11%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 30th. Uniti Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -545.40%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on UNIT. Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of Uniti Group from $12.00 to $8.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st. Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Uniti Group from $15.00 to $9.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Uniti Group from $10.00 to $7.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 22nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Uniti Group from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Uniti Group from $9.00 to $8.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Uniti Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $7.46.

Insider Activity at Uniti Group

In other news, CEO Kenny Gunderman purchased 225,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 9th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $4.37 per share, with a total value of $983,250.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,372,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,998,244.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its holdings in shares of Uniti Group by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 72,860 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $403,000 after buying an additional 6,897 shares during the period. Macquarie Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Uniti Group by 19.2% in the fourth quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 274,319 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,517,000 after purchasing an additional 44,149 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Uniti Group by 29.1% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 176,756 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $977,000 after purchasing an additional 39,889 shares in the last quarter. CI Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Uniti Group in the fourth quarter worth $120,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC bought a new stake in Uniti Group during the fourth quarter worth $218,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.82% of the company’s stock.

About Uniti Group

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Uniti Group, Inc is a real estate investment trust company, which is engaged in the acquisition and construction of mission infrastructure in the communications industry. It operates through the following business segments: Leasing, Fiber Infrastructure, Towers, Consumer CLEC, and Corporate. The Leasing segment represents the real estate investment trust operations of the company and includes the results from leasing business, Uniti leasing, which engages in the acquisition of mission-critical communications assets and leasing them to anchor customers on either and exclusive or shared-tenant basis.