Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) shares are soaring in pre-market trades after the company released its better-than-expected pre-earnings report. The company has been counting on its new Windows 8 Lumia handsets to turn sales around, and if the pre-earnings report is any indication, the company has done it.
Shares of Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) are up more than 22 percent and still rising in trades prior to the market opening in New York. In the company’s release, it said that its Devices and Services unit has “exceeded expectations and achieved underlying profitability in the fourth quarter 2012.”
The company reported in its pre-earnings release that its Lumia portfolio delivered results that were better than expected. It also said that its operating expenses were less than projected. The Devices and Services unit is expected to deliver break-even status or be up 2 percent. Expectations for the unit were about negative 6 percent, with an error rate of plus or minus four percentage points.
The company estimated approximately 79.6 units of mobile phones sold, with 9.3 million of those units being Asha full touch smartphones. Its Smart Devices estimates show about 6.6 million units sold, with 4.4 million of those units being the Lumia handsets. Nokia estimated total smartphone sales of almost 16 million units.
In addition to the great news about device sales, Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) said its Nokia Siemens Networks also exceeded expectations for the quarter, setting a new record for underlying profits and making the third quarter in a row that the networks have shown underlying profitability. The margins for the Nokia Siemens Networks for the fourth quarter of 2012 are expected to be between 13 and 15 percent.
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) also released guidance for 2013, saying that it expects its operating margin for the first quarter to be about negative 2 percent. They attribute that to the current quarter being seasonally week
