Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V)’s stock price rose by 19 percent and closed at around $4.45 per share yesterday, after the company reported a better than expected preliminary earnings result. Shares of the company are up over three percent today, which is making some Tiger Cubs very unhappy campers.
According to Stephen Elop, chief executive officer of Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V), the sales of the Lumia smartphone line powered by Microsoft Corporation (NAADAQ:MSFT)’s Windows Phone 8 operating system increased by more than 50 percent during the fourth quarter of 2012.
Elop said the company is expected to deliver a break-even or 2 percent income, against the expectations of analysts that it would report losses in the fourth quarter. He said, ”While we definitely experienced some tough challenges in the first half of 2012, we are managing through these issues.”
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) estimated that the total sales of its Device and Services were €3.9 billion, and the total volume of devices sold were around 86.3 million units. The company estimated that the total smartphone volume was approximately 15.9 million; including 9.3 million Asha full-touch smartphones, 4.4 million Lumia smartphones, and 2.2 million Symbian smartphones.
The company also announced that its operating expenses are lower than expected in the fourth quarter due to cost reductions as part of its restructuring strategy. Nokia also raised its operating margin forecast from the range of 4-12 percent to around 13-15 percent. Nokia is scheduled to report its actual financial performance on January 24.
Pete Cunningham, analyst at Canalys, commented that the company is still facing headwinds. He thinks 2013 would turnout to be a difficult year for the company. According to him, ”It is way too premature to say that the company has made a turnaround.”
He also commented that he previously used the Lumia 920. He believed the company needed to improve the functionality and usability of the smartphone because big gaps compared with the products of its rivals. Cunningham said, ”I still think there is a lot of work to be done on Lumia.”
On the other hand, Francisco Jeronimo, analyst at International Data said, ”The Lumia smartphones are night-and-day different from Nokia’s old Symbian handsets, ‘I think what we are starting to see now is what will be a steady turnaround in Nokia’s fortunes.”
Meanwhile, another analyst, Neil Mawson of Strategy Analytics, opined that heavy advertising helped the company recapture its lost popularity. He estimated that Nokia’s global smartphone sales would increase by 6 percent, but he stated, ”Nokia still lacks the true killer phone that will enable it to compete with the iPhone 5 or Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) Galaxy S III.”
According to Susan Sheehan, spokesperson for Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V), the company is already smaller than before, but she emphasized that its people are working better together. She said, ”Everyone has been pitching in.”
According to Bloomberg, the $995 million convertible bonds of Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) climbed by 7.6 percent yesterday. The bonds were also up by 2.5 percent today. The bonds are now 52 percent higher since it was first sold by the company in October.
As of this writing, the stock price of Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) is up by almost 2 percent t0 $4.53 per share.
