Ericsson $ERIC Shares Bought by Trexquant Investment LP

Key Points

• Trexquant Investment LP increased its stake in Ericsson by 52.4%, owning approximately 1.65 million shares valued at $12.83 million.
• Wall Street analysts have downgraded Ericsson's rating from "strong-buy" to "buy", with a consensus target price of $9.80.
• Ericsson reported earnings of $0.14 per share for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, but had a 6.2% year-over-year decrease in revenue.

Trexquant Investment LP boosted its stake in shares of Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC - Free Report) by 52.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,653,514 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 568,382 shares during the quarter. Trexquant Investment LP's holdings in Ericsson were worth $12,831,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Federated Hermes Inc. bought a new stake in Ericsson during the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ericsson during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ericsson during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Wallace Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ericsson during the first quarter valued at approximately $90,000. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its position in shares of Ericsson by 692.4% during the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 12,456 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $97,000 after buying an additional 10,884 shares during the period. 7.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ericsson Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of NASDAQ ERIC traded down $0.13 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $7.75. The stock had a trading volume of 7,279,079 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,344,840. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market cap of $25.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.49, a P/E/G ratio of 12.60 and a beta of 0.87. The business's fifty day moving average price is $7.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $8.04. Ericsson has a 52-week low of $6.64 and a 52-week high of $8.99.

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 15th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $5.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.54 billion. Ericsson had a return on equity of 21.17% and a net margin of 7.06%.Ericsson's revenue was down 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($3.34) earnings per share. Analysts expect that Ericsson will post 0.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ericsson Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.