Exactly Why Nokia Stock Just Tanked

Nokia Stock

Nokia Stock (NYSE:NOK)

Nokia (NYSE:NOK), formerly the dominant player in the mobile phone market but now focused on telecoms infrastructure, Nokia’s stock price fell after the firm announced lower-than-expected results this morning. In its fiscal third-quarter report, Nokia posted an operational profit of 658 million euros. In contrast, analysts had predicted it would earn 690.6 million euros ($676 million).

Nokia stock has fallen 7.8% as of 12:35 PM ET.

What’s the Reason?

The strong U.S. dollar helped boost Nokia stock euro-denominated statistics by 16% year-over-year in the third quarter, bringing total sales to 6.2 billion euros. Without currency fluctuations, sales growth would have been 6% lower.

The company’s operating profit margin dropped by 100 basis points to 8.3%. The gross profit margin on sales dropped by 60 basis points to 40.1%. As a result, the boost in operating profits from the increase in revenues was limited, increasing by only 3% year over year to 518 million euros. There was nonetheless an increase of 33% in net earnings per share (0.08 euros per share) or 25% in pro forma net profits (0.10 euros per share).

Cash flow from operations underperformed profits by 300 million euros.

What’s Next?

Moreover, it was just the first bad news.

Nokia stock has informed investors that its revenue for fiscal 2022 is expected to fall within a narrow range of 23.9 billion to 25.1 billion euros, which is in line with previous guidance but likely falls short of U.S. analyst expectations of $25.4 billion. The good news is that Nokia expects to increase its operating profit margin to between 11% and 13.5% this year. The second bad news is that it seems like Nokia’s sales, which those profit margins are applied to, will be down yearly, much more yearly than Wall Street expected.

Nokia stock isn’t overpriced, with a P/E of 16.5. The business provides a tiny dividend yield of 0.9%. Still, if sales growth slows or stops, it seems unlikely that investors will be interested in buying Nokia stock.

Featured Image-  Megapixl @  Ifeelstock

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About the author: I'm a financial journalist with more than 1.5 years of experience. I have worked for different financial companies and covered stocks listed on ASX, NYSE, NASDAQ, etc. I have a degree in marketing from Bahria University Islamabad Campus (BUIC), Pakistan.