Nokia Rallies after Earnings

Shares of Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) are rallying more than 3% in morning trade after the company reported a first quarter loss of over $1.35 billion. Despite the loss share holders seem to be discounting the news as the company said it sold more smartphones last quarter than analysts predicted.

Nokia sold 19.6 million smartphones that can be used for diverse tasks such as video calls and playing movies. That’s about 1 million more than the average estimate of analysts. Nokia has lost its once-dominant position in the global cell phone market, with Android phones and iPhones overtaking it in the rapidly growing smartphone segment.

The Finnish company is trying to turnaround its fortunes with phones using Microsoft’s Windows software. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said Nokia has sold “well over” 1 million such devices since the launch of the Lumia line in the fourth quarter, in line with company expectations.

“From this beachhead of more than 1 million Lumia devices, you will see us push forward with the sales, marketing and successive product introductions necessary to be successful,” Elop said. “We also plan to bring the Lumia series to additional markets including China and Latin America in the first half of 2012.”

Michael Schroeder, analyst at FIM bank in Helsinki, said markets had welcomed Elop’s comments on sales of Lumia. “It definitely alleviated concerns about a horror scenario, expected by some. Although a million is not a lot in the market, it was better than expected,” Schroeder said.

Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics in London said Nokia “was not out of the woods yet,” but its quarterly result was in line with expectations. “Nokia is not necessarily dead in the water. Profit margins were a bit higher than expected and Nokia has not lost its third position in smartphones although it is suffering in North America and western Europe,” Mawston said.

More Posts by this author

• 
  Stocks in Red in Late Trading But Off Session Lows
• 
  Gold and Silver Prices Remain in Red in Mid-Day Trading
• 
  WisdomTree – Generated another solid quarter of inflows
• 
  Canon Inc. – Future remains increasingly uncertain amid growing concern over a global economic slowdown
• 
  Haemonetics Corporation – Third quarter of solid revenue performance
• 
  MicroStrategy – Highest quarterly total revenues in company history
• 
  Stocks in Red Amid Worries about Greek Debt Talks

Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.