Uniti Reports $21.6M Q4 Profit, Full-Year Income of $93.4M

Uniti Group Inc. headquarters in Little Rock. (Emma Mayes)

Uniti Group Inc. of Little Rock (Nasdaq: UNIT) on Friday reported fourth-quarter net income of $21.6 million, down nearly 35% from $30.7 million in the same quarter last year.

Earnings per share were 9 cents, down from 13 cents in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The telecom real estate investment trust posted revenue of $293.3 million, up 2.6% from $285.7 million a year ago. Uniti Fiber contributed $71.7 million in revenue while Uniti Leasing provided $221.7 million.

For the full year of 2024, the company reported net income of $93.4 million, compared to a net loss of $82.9 million in 2023. Revenue rose 3.9% year-over-year from $1.154 billion to $1.2 billion.

Funds from operations, which is a key metric for REITs, was $83.9 million, or 30 cents per share, down 10% from the fourth quarter of 2023.

Adjusted funds from operations totaled $97.7 million, or 35 cents per share. This beat analyst’s estimates of 33 cents per share.

For the full year, funds from operations totaled $320.3 million, or $1.21 per diluted share, up 64% from $164.1 million in 2023.

“2024 was a transformational year for Uniti with the announcement of our upcoming merger with Windstream, solid growth across our business segments and continued work to improve and strengthen our balance sheet,” Uniti president and CEO Kenny Gunderman said in the earnings statement. Gunderman also said Uniti is “well positioned to benefit from the emerging themes related to Generative AI and convergence, both of which put a premium demand on our mission critical fiber infrastructure.”

The company recently completed a $589 million fiber securitization notes offering with a weighted average yield of approximately 6.5%. The notes will be secured by fiber network assets and related customer contracts in the Gulf Coast region.

“We recently completed our landmark inaugural ABS transaction that provides Uniti with an attractive source of capital, and used a portion of those proceeds to redeem some of our most expensive debt,” Gunderman said in the report. “Also, together with recent refinancing activity at Windstream, we have successfully pushed out a meaningful portion of the combined company’s upcoming debt maturities, specifically those that were set to mature in 2028.”

For 2025, Uniti projects revenue between $1.196 billion and $1.216 billion and net income attributable to common shareholders between $95 million and $115 million.

The company’s planned multi-billion dollar merger with Windstream Holdings Inc. of Little Rock remains on track to close by the second half of 2025.

Shares of Uniti rose 8.58% to $5.89 in morning trading following the earnings report. Year to date, shares were up 6.73%.