Dividend stocks like Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA), and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) are gaining momentum following major technology companies announcing their first-ever dividends this year. Americans are also starting to prefer dividend equities during the current inflation storm and expectations of a higher-for-longer scenario. In this environment affordable stocks that pay high dividends are in the limelight.

We recently covered some of the best high-yield penny dividend stocks to buy according to hedge funds. Uniti Group Inc (NASDAQ:UNIT), a notable name in the REIT industry, is our topic in this list.

Uniti Group Inc (NASDAQ:UNIT)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 17

Arkansas-based REIT Uniti Group Inc (NASDAQ:UNIT) provides communications infrastructure, fiber and wireless solutions, owning about 140,000 fiber route miles and 8.5 million fiber strand miles in the US. It is one of the highest yielding dividend stocks popular among hedge funds, with a 15% yield.

Insider Monkey's proprietary database of 933 hedge funds shows that 17 funds had stakes in Uniti Group Inc (NASDAQ:UNIT) as of the end of 2023.

Paul Singer's Elliott Management, Thomas Lenox Kempner's Davidson Kempner, Howard Marks' Oaktree Capital Management and Ken Griffin's Citadel Investment Group are some of the top hedge fund shareholders of the company.

However, unlike Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA), and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Uniti is a small company with low hedge fund sentiment.

Earlier this month, the company talked about its dividend policy and future expectations during its earnings call:

"Including the dividend we declared yesterday, we will have distributed dividends totaling $0.45 per share for the 2024 tax year, which is more than our current estimated minimum required distribution. As a result, and given that the new business will have substantial value accretive internal uses for our capital, we’ll be suspending our common dividend going forward.