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

Key Points

• Ericsson has been downgraded from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating by Wall Street Zen, following a recent research note.
• The company's stock saw a 3.1% increase and opened at $7.93, with a 52-week range between $6.64 and $8.99.
• In its latest earnings report, Ericsson posted an earnings per share of $0.14, beating estimates, despite a year-over-year revenue decline of 6.2% to $5.84 billion.

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC - Get Free Report) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Ericsson Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of ERIC stock traded up $0.01 on Friday, hitting $7.90. 4,896,321 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,579,545. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $7.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $8.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.43 billion, a PE ratio of 15.79, a PEG ratio of 12.69 and a beta of 0.85. Ericsson has a twelve month low of $6.64 and a twelve month high of $8.99.

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 15th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $5.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $60.54 billion. Ericsson had a net margin of 7.06% and a return on equity of 21.17%. The company's revenue was down 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($3.34) EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ericsson will post 0.48 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted 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 during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ericsson by 234.6% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 6,744,940 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $54,364,000 after acquiring an additional 4,729,207 shares during the last quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. lifted its position in Ericsson by 28.8% in the fourth quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 6,382,140 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $51,440,000 after buying an additional 1,427,386 shares during the last quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA lifted its position in Ericsson by 64.6% in the second quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA now owns 5,121,349 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $43,429,000 after buying an additional 2,009,723 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Ericsson by 106.6% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,659,696 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $28,399,000 after buying an additional 1,888,375 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 7.99% of the company's stock.

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.