Uniti Group Inc. of Little Rock swung back to a profit in 2021 and in the fourth quarter as it bought additional fiber to lease on a long-term basis and continued building broadband infrastructure, which is in growth mode across the country.
The company also saw revenue increase for the year and the quarter compared to the same periods a year earlier.
The real estate investment trust (Nasdaq: UNIT), a spinoff of Windstream Holdings Inc. of Little Rock, released its earnings on Friday before the market opened.
Its 2021 net income was $124.7 million, or 51 cents per diluted share. That’s significantly better than the $718.8 million loss, or $3.47 per share, the company reported for 2020.
Fourth-quarter net income was $35.9 million, or 15 cents per share, compared to a $47.7 million loss, or 20 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2020.
Full-year revenue was $1.1 billion, up slightly from $1.07 billion, while fourth-quarter revenue was $293 million, up from $275.3 million.
“Our national network of 128,000 route miles of fiber is one of the largest and most robust in the country. We added nearly 6,000 route miles of valuable fiber in 2021 and capped off a terrific year of performance by adding $3.5 million of new consolidated bookings, a 40% increase over 2020,” President and CEO Kenny Gunderman said in a news release.
“Trends in the communications infrastructure space have never been better, and Uniti remains uniquely positioned to benefit from the continued proliferation of broadband growth, fiber-to-the-home, small cells and national transport,” he said.
