Nokia's first-quarter earnings match expectations

Posted Apr 16th 2009 8:00AM by Mark Fightmaster
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Nokia Corp. (NOK)

This morning, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced that first-quarter net profit plunged 82% to 122 million euros, which works out to 0.03 euro per share. Taking one-time items out of the picture, the mobile phone firm tallied adjusted earnings of 0.10 euro per share. While the results were far worse than a year ago, Nokia matched the consensus estimate for earnings of 0.10 euro per share.

The company wasn't as fortunate as far as sales are concerned. The European mobile phone manufacturer saw quarterly sales drop to 9.3 billion euros, 27% worse than a year ago. Not only were sales worse than a year ago, but they also fell short of the consensus estimate for sales of 9.7 billion euros. Nokia reported that it shipped 93.2 million new phones during the quarter, which was 19% less than a year ago and 18% lower than the previous quarter.

Nokia's market share was 37%, unchanged from the fourth quarter. The company expects device volume to be flat to slightly higher in the second quarter and also believes its market share will increase. Nokia also believes that the telecoms-equipment market will decline 10% this year, which is wider than the 5% decline the company originally forecast.

The stock is in the midst of an intermediate-term rally, which has it on the verge of a break through resistance at the equity's 20-week moving average. Nevertheless, Nokia still faces overhead resistance from its 10-month moving average. The good news is that this trendline is currently in the $17 region, which gives the shares some room to run before they would hit the potential resistance. That said, a negative reaction to this earnings announcement could force the stock lower, bringing the rally to an end in the process.

Tags: earnings, inthenews, market share, MarketShare, mobile phones, MobilePhones, nok, Nokia