Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC)

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Investors bought 2,030 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 162% compared to the typical volume of 775 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ericsson

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ERIC. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ericsson by 15.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 252,164 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $2,032,000 after acquiring an additional 32,982 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc boosted its position in shares of Ericsson by 370.6% in the fourth quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 50,651 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $408,000 after acquiring an additional 39,889 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ericsson in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $860,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ericsson by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 51,966 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,726 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in Ericsson by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 450,195 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $3,741,000 after purchasing an additional 5,562 shares during the period. 7.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ERIC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Ericsson from $8.90 to $9.80 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Kepler Capital Markets raised Ericsson from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Ericsson from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th.

Ericsson Stock Performance

Ericsson stock traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $7.46. 15,819,210 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,965,746. The firm has a market cap of $24.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.92, a PEG ratio of 12.15 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $8.38 and a 200 day moving average of $8.13. Ericsson has a 12 month low of $6.41 and a 12 month high of $9.00.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.02. Ericsson had a return on equity of 21.17% and a net margin of 7.06%. The firm had revenue of $5.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $60.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($3.34) earnings per share. The company's revenue was down 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ericsson will post 0.48 earnings per share for the current year.

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.