Mobile Phones posts
FeedPosted Apr 16th 2009 8:00AM by Mark Fightmaster (RSS feed)
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.
Continue reading Nokia's first-quarter earnings match expectations
Posted Mar 20th 2009 12:50PM by Brent Archer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Major movement, Forecasts, Bad news, Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Options, Technical Analysis
LM Ericsson (NASDAQ:
ERIC -
option chain) stock is falling today after Sony Ericsson, the joint venture between
Sony (NYSE:
SNE) and ERIC,
forecast continued weak mobile phone handset sales. Things are so bad that they expect to ship only half the phones this quarter that they did last, but keep in mind last wuarter included the holiday season. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on ERIC.
This morning, ERIC opened at $8.44. So far today the stock has hit a low of $8.22 and a high of $8.53. As of 11:50, ERIC is trading at $8.31, down 99 cents (-10.7%). The chart for ERIC looks neutral and
S&P gives ERIC a 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.
Continue reading LM Ericsson (ERIC) drops 10% on handset forecast
Posted Dec 8th 2008 10:28AM by Brian White (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad news, Apple Inc (AAPL), Nokia Corp. (NOK)
Nokia Corp. (NYSE:
NOK) has indicated last week that total market shipments for global wireless handsets would
fall by 5% in 2009, signaling that even the world's top wireless handset maker won't be immune from customer spending slowdowns. Nokia's second warning in three weeks came on the heels of the company's announcement of a high-end new handset meant to compete with the iPhone 3G,
the Nokia N97. However, Nokia did predict that its own market share would increase in 2009.
Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told CNBC "The most recent incremental impact in the emerging markets has been more pronounced than in other markets." He added that while 2009 will be challenging, Nokia's position will continue to strengthen. Indeed, all the flash of newer smartphones and higher-end cellphones may lose quite a bit of luster as customers reign in spending next year.
Nokia's economy of scale will keep it positioned ahead of the pack. The company did not become the world's largest handset supplier without having solutions available for every market segment, from emerging markets to the very high end market that the N97 will be targeting soon. Still, will many customers really pay $400 and up for a cellphone in this environment?
Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:
AAPL) may even see a slowdown for its venerable iPhone 3G, which only costs $200 in the U.S. with a two-year contract.
Story corrected: 10:00am CST, 8-Dec-08Posted Jul 10th 2008 2:14PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Consumer experience, Verizon Communications (VZ)
Verizon Wirless Thursday agreed to pay $21 million to settle a lawsuit filed by California customers upset with the company's early termination fees,
the Associated Press reported.Details are still pending, but Alan Plutzik, Alameda County (California) Superior Court judge said "we are recovering cash" that would "be available" to Verizon mobile phone subscribers who paid fees to end their contracts early,
AP reported. Shares of Verizon Wireless' parent
Verizon (NYSE:
VZ) were virtually unchanged on the news, dipping just 8 cents $34.58 in mid-day Thursday trading.
Warranted reimbursement or California dreamin'?Stock analyst C. Leonard Bauer told BloggingStocks Thursday that, while he abhors cell phone / PDA termination fees as many others do, thinking that mobile phone / phone service providers can eliminate the $100-$250 fee without increasing charges elsewhere does not represent clear thinking.
Continue reading Verizon agrees to pay $21 million to settle cell phone termination fee suit
Posted Apr 3rd 2008 1:16PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Internet, Verizon Communications (VZ), Stocks to Buy
Readers of this space know that one of the preferred plays is a utility company with a demonstrated business model, solid balance sheet, ample cash, decent dividend, and with an extra revenue stream / business that could provide additional growth. Verizon is one such company.
Verizon is not your typical, former
AT&T (NYSE:
T) unit.
Verizon Communications (NYSE:
VZ) is a modern, diverse telecom provider for the early digital age.
Verizon has three impressive divisions: landline, wireless, and business services. And the numbers speak for themselves: the landline unit has an astounding 41.4 million subscribers in 28 states, Verizon Wireless is the U.S.'s second largest wireless provider, and business services is making inroads on medium/large enterprise customers and government agencies.
Further, the company's fiber optic broadband/video service, FiOS emerged as a competitor to comparable cable broadband/video services: look for VZ to continue to grab market share in key markets, as the service is rolled-out in the years ahead.
The Reuters F2008/F2009 EPS consensus estimates for VZ are $2.65/$2.92.
Continue reading Verizon is a utility play with some pizzazz
Posted Feb 11th 2008 6:13PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Smartphones, Stocks to Buy
Readers of this space know that the investment bias is toward large-cap companies with demonstrated business models and who have a competitive advantage in established markets, preferably with a favorable global trend as a support. But every once in while an exception is made for a non-conforming but innovative/promising company, and along this line Skyworks looks attractive. (Note: Skyworks is only for investors who can tolerate high-risk.)
Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq:
SWKS) is a leading supplier to major mobile phone/PDA manufacturers.
Analysts really like Skyworks' radio frequency and manufacturing expertise, which enables the company to secure design wins with existing and new customers.
Skyworks, which began as a defense contractor, makes its integrated circuits out of gallium arsenide, a material that performs at higher speeds and with less energy consumption than the sector standard, silicon.
Continue reading With Skyworks, at times it seems the sky's the limit
Posted Jan 22nd 2008 10:15AM by Douglas McIntyre (RSS feed)
Filed under: Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Apple Inc (AAPL), Motorola (MOT), Nokia Corp. (NOK), Smartphones
The new product turnaround at Motorola (NYSE: MOT) may already be crippled. One analyst, quoted by Bloomberg said, "The Razr 2 didn't set the world on fire and it won't be a phenomenon like the original one."
The cause of Motorola's problem with its newest product may be the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, which appears to have sold more than two million units in the last quarter of 2007.
While the RAZR2 may be a better product than its predecessor, Apple, Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Samsung and Sony Ericsson have all introduced similar products to take advantage of the high-end multimedia handset space. Motorola may be squeezed out of a market it helped create.
With its shares trading just above $13, near a 52-week low, a weak fourth quarter earnings report could take the stock much closer to $10.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
Posted Jan 18th 2008 10:30AM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Sprint Nextel Corp (S)
Sprint's shares plunged more than 15% Friday morning after the company said it will cut about 4,000 jobs and close 125 stores to cut costs to improve its financial performance, the company announced Friday i
n a statement. Sprint's shares sank $2.06 to $9.51 in early trading Friday.
Sprint (NYSE:
S), the No. 3 wireless carrier, said the action would lower labor costs by about $700-$800 million annually. Sprint said the jobs cuts would occur nationally, and would include managers.
The action comes after the company announced that it lost an additional 683,000 customers last quarter, which brought 2007 customer losses to 1.2 million.
No 3. carrier Sprint has been stung by customer departures, as customers have been lured to competitors
AT&T (NYSE:
T) and
Verizon Wireless (NYSE:
VZ), which feature more-popular phones/PDAs and better service. Moreover, although Sprint's call quality and network has improved in the past six months, Sprint has found it difficult to reverse the company's earlier reputation as one of the worst call networks in the mobile sector. In addition to Sprint's aforementioned attrition problem, analysts believe that reputation is holding down subscriber recruitment.
Continue reading Sprint shares plunge 15% -- to cut 4,000 jobs, close 125 stores
Posted Jan 8th 2008 6:03PM by Beth Gaston Moon (RSS feed)
Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Management, Competitive strategy, Intel (INTC), Technology
In an effort to keep bottom-line growth alive, Intel is trying (again) to
move into the mobile phone market. Speaking from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Pentium parent's CEO, Paul Otellini, told Bloomberg that Intel is focused on "where we think phones are going, not where they are today."
Last year, Otellini put to rest his predecessor's $5 billion, six-year effort to produce mobile-phone chips designed to run the communications features of cellular phones. Now, the Intel CEO is taking a different approach to the new marketplace, designing chips for phones that can surf the web and master mobile video and music. The goal for the new chip is to provide increased processing power while exerting less electricity.
In the first half of 2008, Intel will be unveiling its package of mobile chips. A successful shift toward this technology could be a boon for the company, as mobile handsets currently outsell personal computers by a 4-to-1 margin.
Continue reading Intel (INTC) introduces new cell-phone chips
Posted Dec 7th 2007 5:15PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Competitive strategy, India, Brazil, Middle East, Mexico, Eastern Europe, Stocks to Buy
Imagine a global cell phone network. Now imagine a global cell phone network for a low monthly fee.
True, a system of that sort is not likely to happen overnight, but a company that's headed in that direction is United Kingdom-based Vodafone Group Plc (NYSE: VOD).
Vodafone Group is the world's leading mobile telecommunications company, with a substantial presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia/Pacific and the United States.
Along with VOD's strong balance sheet and solid dividend, analysts like Vodafone Wireless, the company's most profitable division, which contributes 22% of operating earnings. About 80% of VOD's revenue is Europe-based, a maturing market, so VOD has beefed-up its emerging market expansion plan with asset purchases in India and Turkey.
Continue reading Soon, the sun may never set on the Vodafone wireless empire
Posted Nov 26th 2007 7:14PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: India, China, Nokia Corp. (NOK), iPhone, Stocks to Buy
As investors/readers know, in this market, all stock pullbacks are not alike. Some signal a company's misfortune; others, the end of a growth cycle.
Then there are those companies with solid fundamentals who experience a healthy pullback after a substantial price gain. Put
Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:
NOK) in the latter category.
In this case Nokia's pullback from about $42 to the $38-$39 range follows an impressive gain from about $28, with recent stock market choppiness undoubtedly contributing to the sell-off. Caution would typically prevail here regarding a communications equipment provider but Nokia's positives are so impressive, the stock is worth a review, for moderate-risk investors.
Nokia's major positives: double-digit revenue growth in 2007, and likely double-digit revenue growth in 2008 (despite an expected decline in average handset prices), economies of scale, a solid presence in Europe, strong positions is China and India, and a +45% market share in the high-end handset segment, globally.
Analysts estimate Nokia's mobile device shipments will increase 12%-16% in 2007, with a 37%-39% market share of the 1.1 billion devices in use; analysts see that market share increasing to about 40% in 2008. The
Reuters F2007/F2008 EPS consensus estimates for NOK are $1.95 to $2.24.
The risks? A global economic slowdown would certainly hurt NOK's results, the company is facing pricing pressure in a variety of handset categories, and then there's the competition from that high profile / high-end device:
Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq:
AAPL)'s iPhone.
But keep in mind that not everyone will buy (or need) a $399 iPhone, and that fact, combined with Nokia's modest p/e of 15, tips the risk/reward needle in favor of a purchase of NOK's shares.
The First Call mean rating for NOK is: Buy. [27 firms.] Mean 2008 target: $43.10. [high: $51, low: $36.50.]
Stock Analysis: Nokia is a moderate-risk stock not suitable for low-risk investors. Investors with an investment horizon longer than 2 years should be rewarded from NOK's shares. Sell / Stop Loss if you were to purchase shares in this company: $24.
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