Ericsson Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:ERIC)

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 5,236 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 117% compared to the average volume of 2,412 put options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ERIC. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ericsson in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded Ericsson from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. Danske upgraded Ericsson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Ericsson in a research report on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ericsson currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.00.

Ericsson Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ERIC opened at $10.07 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $12.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.34. Ericsson has a 52-week low of $7.16 and a 52-week high of $13.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.93.

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 14th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.13. The company had revenue of $5.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.66 billion. Ericsson had a return on equity of 20.67% and a net margin of 10.72%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ericsson will post 0.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Ericsson by 7.5% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 134,891 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,049,000 after buying an additional 9,362 shares during the period. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new stake in Ericsson in the first quarter valued at $126,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ericsson by 0.7% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 250,389 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,123,000 after acquiring an additional 1,658 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in shares of Ericsson during the second quarter worth about $2,735,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in shares of Ericsson by 42.9% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 3,350,029 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,408,000 after acquiring an additional 1,005,398 shares during the last quarter. 7.99% of the stock is currently owned by 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.