Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) Upgraded to Hold at Cfra Research

Cfra Research upgraded shares of Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) to a hold rating in a report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

ERIC has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating on shares of Ericsson in a research note on Wednesday. BNP Paribas reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Ericsson in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Danske lowered shares of Ericsson to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ericsson from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Ericsson in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ericsson presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $9.80.

Ericsson Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of NASDAQ ERIC opened at $9.48 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $8.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.74 billion, a PE ratio of 12.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Ericsson has a 12 month low of $6.64 and a 12 month high of $9.87.

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $57.16 billion. Ericsson had a net margin of 10.44% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.14 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Ericsson will post 0.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Ericsson

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Ericsson by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 87,313,506 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $677,498,000 after purchasing an additional 482,691 shares in the last quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA increased its stake in Ericsson by 64.6% during the 2nd quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA now owns 5,121,349 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $43,429,000 after purchasing an additional 2,009,723 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Ericsson by 106.6% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,659,696 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,399,000 after purchasing an additional 1,888,375 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in Ericsson by 42.9% during the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 3,350,029 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,408,000 after purchasing an additional 1,005,398 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC increased its stake in Ericsson by 113.0% during the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 2,387,985 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $18,531,000 after purchasing an additional 1,266,788 shares in the last quarter. 7.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Ericsson

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ), together with its subsidiaries, provides mobile connectivity solutions for telcom operators and enterprise customers in various sectors in North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, North East Asia, South East Asia, Oceania, and India. It operates in four segments: Networks; Cloud Software and Services; Enterprise; and Other.