ABC Arbitrage SA Cuts Stock Holdings in Ericsson $ERIC

Key Points

• ABC Arbitrage SA reduced its Ericsson stake by 46.8% in the first quarter, selling over 2 million shares and leaving it with 2.33 million shares valued at about $26.3 million. Ericsson still represented roughly 3.5% of the fund’s portfolio and was its seventh-largest holding.
• Other institutional investors were mixed on Ericsson, with several firms modestly increasing positions while hedge funds and other institutional holders own about 7.99% of the stock overall.
• Analyst sentiment remains cautious, with one Buy, six Hold, and two Sell ratings; MarketBeat’s summary shows an average rating of “Reduce” and a price target of $11.00, even as the stock recently traded up 3.3% to $11.72.

ABC Arbitrage SA trimmed its holdings in shares of Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC - Free Report) by 46.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,333,866 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after selling 2,055,143 shares during the quarter. Ericsson accounts for approximately 3.5% of ABC Arbitrage SA's investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. ABC Arbitrage SA owned approximately 0.07% of Ericsson worth $26,303,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hennessy Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ericsson by 10.3% during the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 16,324 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $158,000 after acquiring an additional 1,518 shares in the last quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ericsson by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 64,667 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $624,000 after purchasing an additional 1,576 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Ericsson by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 250,389 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $2,123,000 after purchasing an additional 1,658 shares during the period. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its position in shares of Ericsson by 7.2% in the 4th quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 42,902 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $414,000 after purchasing an additional 2,869 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. bought a new position in shares of Ericsson during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. 7.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ERIC. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Ericsson in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Ericsson in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Ericsson from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, April 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Reduce" and an average price target of $11.00.

Ericsson Stock Up 3.3%

Shares of ERIC stock opened at $11.72 on Tuesday. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $12.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.51 billion, a PE ratio of 14.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.93. Ericsson has a fifty-two week low of $7.16 and a fifty-two week high of $13.77.

Ericsson Profile

Ericsson AB is a Swedish multinational telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Stockholm. Founded in 1876 by Lars Magnus Ericsson, the company designs, develops and sells infrastructure, software and services that enable mobile and fixed-line networks worldwide. Ericsson serves a global customer base that includes mobile network operators, enterprise customers and public-sector organizations across Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.

The company's core activities center on building and modernizing network infrastructure, with a particular focus on radio access networks (RAN), core network software, cloud-native solutions and network management systems.

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