Short Interest in Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) Increases By 37.8%

Key Points

• Short interest in Ericsson surged by 37.8% to 54,979,236 shares as of March 31, representing about 1.6% of shares short and a short-interest ratio of 5.4 days.
• Wall Street consensus is a Reduce with a $11.00 target price; analyst ratings are mixed (1 Buy, 7 Hold, 2 Sell).
• Shares trade around $11.87 (52-week high $12.11) with a market cap near $40.0 billion, and the company paid a $0.1663 dividend on April 2 (payout ratio 25%).

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC - Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 54,979,236 shares, a growth of 37.8% from the March 15th total of 39,897,207 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 10,206,667 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.4 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ericsson

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. purchased a new stake in Ericsson in the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in Ericsson by 12.4% in the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 13,017 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $107,000 after buying an additional 1,441 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new position in Ericsson in the 1st quarter valued at about $126,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Ericsson by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 16,324 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $158,000 after buying an additional 1,518 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC lifted its stake in Ericsson by 57.2% in the 2nd quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 20,485 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $174,000 after buying an additional 7,452 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 7.99% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of Ericsson in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Ericsson in a report on Friday, January 16th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ericsson from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday. Argus upgraded shares of Ericsson to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Ericsson in a research report on Monday, February 9th. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $11.00 target price on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $11.00.

Ericsson Price Performance

Shares of ERIC stock traded down $0.14 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $11.87. 11,747,438 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,782,957. Ericsson has a fifty-two week low of $7.16 and a fifty-two week high of $12.11. The firm has a market cap of $40.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $11.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $10.21.

Ericsson Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 2nd were issued a $0.1663 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 2nd. Ericsson's payout ratio is presently 25.00%.

Ericsson Company 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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