Ericsson shares jump 7% on third-quarter beat, growth in North America sales

Shares of Swedish telecom firm Ericsson jumped amid third-quarter core earnings that surpassed analyst expectations and growth in North American demand.

Ericsson on Tuesday declared adjusted third-quarter earnings, excluding impairments, of 7.327 billion Swedish crowns ($0.7 billion), compared with 3.9 billion Swedish crowns in the same period of last year and exceeding the 5.75 billion crown mean forecast of analysts cited by Reuters.

Net sales shed 4% year-on-year to 61.8 billion Swedish crowns in the third quarter, but nevertheless surpassed analyst expectations of near 61.6 billion, according to Reuters estimates. North America emerged as a bright spot in the sales picture, with year-on-year growth of more than 50%.

“We see signs that the overall market is stabilizing with North America, as an early adopter market, returning to growth,” Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm said in a statement, stressing that he continues to expect “good growth” in the region and for networks sales to “stabilize year-on-year” during the fourth quarter.

The company’s stock had edged up near 9% at 8:28 a.m. London time, before lightly paring gains to 7% at 8:44 a.m.

The results come after Ericsson has been contending with slowing demand for its 5G equipment, which pushed it to announce plans to lay off 1,200 employees in Sweden back in March. It previously eliminated 8,500 positions globally — equivalent to around 8% of its workforce — in a bid to lower costs.

This breaking news story is being updated.