Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (HEL:NOK1V) shares have been cut from Buy to Neutral by analysts at Swedbank. This comes after the stock has had a strong run in recent weeks. Analysts at the firm increased their target price to $2.80 on news of the apparent successful launch of Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (HEL:NOK1V)’s Windows 8 phones.
Analysts at Swedbank say a sum of the parts valuation shows that the stock’s asset values are greater than $4.61 per share, but they “do not expect Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (HEL:NOK1V) to look attractive on earnings multiples until 2014, at the earliest.”
They expect shipment of 4.5 million Lumias during the current quarter, and they note that thus far, reception of the Lumia Windows 8 handsets is promising because it was not expected to do well. Analysts also believe the volume of Lumia sold will grow “sequentially to 5.5 million” in the first quarter of 2013. They expect sales of the Lumia to China Mobile and also continued availability to be major contributors to the growth of Lumia sales.
Swedbank said it expects Nokia to “pull through” its restructuring process and end up with net cash of at least $2.6 billion. But since shares of Nokia have increased in price recently, they do say there’s a significant risk of a major event causing a decrease. That’s why they’re downgrading the stock from Buy to Neutral.
This morning in pre-market trading shares of Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (HEL:NOK1V) have increased more than 4 percent, which is certainly a strong opening price for this stock. On Monday shares soared above $4 each before dropping back below the $4 mark. With this morning’s pre-market gains, it appears the stock will rise about $4 per share again unless its course changes again when the markets open.
