No news can sometimes be good news, but no guidance is almost always bad news.
Ericsson’s (ticker: ERIC) decision not to offer any guidance beyond the fourth quarter, citing market uncertainty, is spooking investors.
The Swedish telecommunications supplier said the timing of the recovery in its mobile networks business was “in our customers’ hands” but planned for current conditions to persist into 2024.
It seems the recovery timeline has been pushed back. In July, CEO Borje Ekholm said he expected to see a gradual recovery in late 2023, and further improvement 2024.
Ericsson and its rival
Nokia
(NOK) both issued warnings back in July about the outlook for carrier spending, particularly in the U.S. Nokia said customer spending plans were increasingly being impacted by high inflation and rising interest rates. That sparked losses for companies across the industry’s supply chain, including
AT&T
(T),
Verizon
(VZ) and
T-Mobile
(TMUS). All three were little changed ahead of the open Tuesday.
Those warnings have now come true, and been ramped up, as Ericsson’s third-quarter earnings report shows. The company said Tuesday that organic sales in its networks business in North America fell 60% year-over-year, albeit from a record quarter in 2022.
Ericsson stock tumbled 7.6% in early European trading, while Nokia shares were 3.7% down. Ericsson’s American depositary receipts were more than 6% down in early premarket trading, and Nokia’s were 4% lower.
Write to Callum Keown at [email protected]
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