UPDATE: BMO Capital Markets Lowers Target to $8 on Ericsson

BMO Capital Markets reiterates its Perform rating on Ericsson

and lowers its price target o $8 as the company posts a weak quarter and appears to be suffering from lack of capex in North America. BMO Capital Markets says, "Ericsson reported a very weak quarter, with sales, gross margins, and earnings all well below our forecast. Both joint ventures missed numbers meaningfully as well. We believe Ericsson is facing major competitive headwinds, as well as a challenging market transition in North America. We do not expect the impacts from CDMA to LTE evolution, network modernization projects, network rollout, or ST Ericsson losses to get better until the second half of 2012, at the earliest." ERIC closed at $10.22 a share on Wednesday.