STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Shares of L.M. Ericsson dropped despite a strong showing in its third-quarter earnings report.
Because the company experienced a 2-percent sales dip in its infrastructure business compared with the previous quarter, the market responded with an 8.4-percent slide in its share value to $28.98.
The infrastructure player maintained its premier position in the mobile networks sales market in spite of the 2-percent fall in overall sales because rivals Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. had more giddy drops of 7 percent and 11 percent respectively.
Ericsson’s net sales for the quarter stood at $4.4 billion compared with $3.8 billion in the same period last year. Its net income was $666.7 million compared with a loss of $542 million in the year-ago period. Earnings per share totaled 41 cents, topping a loss of 34 cents last year in the same quarter.
The vendor enjoyed a gross margin of 47.1 percent for the quarter compared with 35.9 percent in the third quarter of last year. The company witnessed a sequential growth in its net sales before financing to $722 million from $597 million in its second quarter.
“We are proud to report continued solid performance,” said Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and chief executive officer of Ericsson, adding the company “continues to see healthy margin levels and strong results.”
