Ericsson shares jump after analyst day eases worries
NEW YORK --U.S.-traded shares of LM Ericsson AB jumped Thursday after the Swedish wireless equipment maker's capital markets day eased concerns about the company's prospects.
On Wednesday, Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg said he expects the number of worldwide mobile subscriptions to reach 6.5 billion by 2013.
Sherief Bakr, an analyst with Citi Investment Research, said while the meeting provided "no major revelations," it did boost his confidence that Ericsson's margins will recover.
"(M)anagement's comments that 'mix is not going to get worse from here,' current margins are 'not good enough' and that high margin IPR revenues are likely to be a higher and more sustained source of profitability should allay fears that the better-than-expected Q108 was nothing more than a 'one-off,'" the analyst wrote in a note to investors. IPR stands for intellectual property rights. Bakr rates Ericsson "Buy."
Last month, Ericsson surprised investors with better-than-expected first-quarter results, even as its profit dropped 55 percent.
Lehman Brothers analyst Jeffrey Kvaal said the main theme of the company's analyst day was that its margins may improve following a "downtick" in the second quarter. Kvaal rates the company "Equal weight."
American Depositary Shares of the Swedish company rose $1.47, or 5.7 percent, to $27.25. In the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $17.04 and $43.41. 