Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) Cut to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Saturday.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on ERIC. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Ericsson in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Cfra Research raised Ericsson to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating on shares of Ericsson in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Danske lowered Ericsson to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Ericsson to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ericsson presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $9.80.

Ericsson Stock Performance

Ericsson stock opened at $9.50 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $8.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.81 billion, a PE ratio of 12.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.17. Ericsson has a one year low of $6.64 and a one year high of $9.87.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ericsson

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 482,691 shares in the last quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA grew 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 worth $43,429,000 after buying an additional 2,009,723 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew 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 worth $28,399,000 after buying an additional 1,888,375 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew 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 worth $28,408,000 after buying an additional 1,005,398 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC grew 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 worth $18,531,000 after buying an additional 1,266,788 shares during the last quarter. 7.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ericsson Company Profile

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.