All Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) enthusiasts may have happily buried the story of cellphone pioneer, Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V). But it seems there is still some spark left in the company. Its stock is up over 19 percent on the NY exchange today, and still rising, after the company reported higher than expected Lumia sales.
The more noteworthy event is that the share price rose as high as 14 percent in Helsinki as well and closed at EUR 3.32 , up 10.8 percent. The reason all this is important to us is because several US hedge funds are shorting the stock in Finland. Viking Global disclosed a 1.97 percent position in Nokia on November 1 2012. The position was progressively increased to 2.82 percent of Nokia’s shares outstanding on Jan 3rd 2013. While we do know with certainty when the position was exactly initiated, the holding has more than doubled in the period between Nov’12 -Jan’ 13. In this period Nokia is up more than 53 percent on the Helsinki exchange and up 68 percent on the NYSE. The big short of Viking Global become a big loser for the fund. Many Tiger cubs are long Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and short Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V).
A number of other Tiger Cubs are also shorting the company, Blue Ridge Capital has a 1.4 percent position, Maverick Capital 1.09 percent, Lone Pine Capital 0.84 percent, Coatue Capital Management 0.69 percent. Additonally D.E Shaw & Co has a 0.56 percent short position, Steve Cohen’s S.A.C. Capital 0.85 percent, while Discovery Capital has a 0.64 percent position in Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V). Most of these funds have increased their short holding after November of last year. The only hedge fund we know who got out is SRS Partners, which covered the position in late November.
With a very positive outlook for Q4 earnings, Nokia’s stock will continue to rise at least till the official earnings are released. In the pre-earnings statement, the company delivered several bits of good news. It sold 6.6 million units of smartphones that include 4.4 million Lumia devices in Q4. The operating expenses were also reduced and Nokia Siemens Network set a new record of underlying profits with margins estimated in the range of 13-15 percent. Finnish people continue to support their company with the Finnish carrier Elisa reporting that Lumia 920 took the third spot in the best selling phone, while Sonera said that Lumia 800 was the most popular and Lumia 920 was the third most popular phone among consumers, debasing iPhone 5.
Based on these positive notes, Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) will probably report a quarter of profits after reporting six straight quarters of losses. Lets see how Tiger Cubs will maneuver their shorts now.
