American Century Companies Inc. Boosts Holdings in Ericsson $ERIC

Key Points

• American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Ericsson by 5.9%, owning 869,117 shares valued at $6.74 million as of their recent SEC filing.
• Wall Street analysts have downgraded Ericsson from a "strong-buy" to a "buy" rating, with the stock currently holding an average price target of $9.80.
• Ericsson reported earnings of $0.14 per share, surpassing expectations, but experienced a 6.2% decline in revenue year-over-year for the last quarter.

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC - Free Report) by 5.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 869,117 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after buying an additional 48,258 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.'s holdings in Ericsson were worth $6,744,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ERIC. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ericsson by 234.6% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 6,744,940 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $54,364,000 after buying an additional 4,729,207 shares in the last quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA purchased a new stake in shares of Ericsson in the first quarter worth about $24,146,000. DigitalBridge Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ericsson by 28.8% in the fourth quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 6,382,140 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $51,440,000 after buying an additional 1,427,386 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in shares of Ericsson by 176.7% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,328,099 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $10,704,000 after buying an additional 848,205 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ericsson by 41.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,771,321 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $14,277,000 after buying an additional 519,029 shares in the last quarter. 7.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Ericsson from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, August 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $9.80.

Ericsson Price Performance

ERIC traded down $0.12 on Tuesday, reaching $7.75. The company had a trading volume of 9,347,362 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,113,701. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.04. The company has a market cap of $25.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.50, a P/E/G ratio of 12.60 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.09. Ericsson has a 52-week low of $6.64 and a 52-week high of $8.99.

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

Ericsson Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 1st. Investors of record on Monday, September 29th will be paid a $0.1485 dividend. This represents a yield of 377.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 29th. Ericsson's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.00%.

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.