Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Reduce” from Analysts

Shares of Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) have been given a consensus rating of “Reduce” by the eleven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have assigned a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $10.40.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ERIC shares. Argus raised shares of Ericsson to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Ericsson in a report on Monday, February 9th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $11.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Ericsson in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Ericsson in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Ericsson from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th.

Ericsson Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ:ERIC opened at $11.44 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $38.56 billion, a PE ratio of 13.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Ericsson has a 52-week low of $6.64 and a 52-week high of $12.00. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.63.

Ericsson Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 2nd were given a dividend of $0.1663 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 2nd. Ericsson’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.73%.

Institutional Trading of Ericsson

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ERIC. Defiance ETFs LLC purchased a new stake in Ericsson during the 4th quarter worth about $13,766,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Ericsson by 19.1% in the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,903,298 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $18,603,000 after purchasing an additional 304,974 shares in the last quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Ericsson in the 4th quarter valued at about $429,000. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ericsson by 33.9% during the 4th quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 43,232 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $417,000 after purchasing an additional 10,955 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Ericsson by 229.3% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,252,437 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $12,086,000 after purchasing an additional 872,065 shares during the last quarter. 7.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.