Nokia (NYSE:NOK) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $6.22, but opened at $6.43. Nokia shares last traded at $6.4450, with a volume of 8,875,746 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on NOK. BNP Paribas Exane raised Nokia from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $5.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Danske upgraded Nokia from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 21st. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Nokia in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. New Street Research set a $6.57 price target on shares of Nokia in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Santander cut shares of Nokia to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $6.10.

Nokia Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market capitalization of $35.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.89 and a beta of 0.77. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $6.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $5.25.

Nokia (NYSE:NOK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.67 billion. Nokia had a net margin of 4.65% and a return on equity of 8.24%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.06 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Nokia Corporation will post 0.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nokia

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NOK. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Nokia by 18.8% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 468,939 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,471,000 after purchasing an additional 74,072 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of Nokia by 5.0% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 50,603 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,425 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in Nokia in the 1st quarter worth approximately $273,000. Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its stake in Nokia by 41.8% during the 1st quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 36,172 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $191,000 after purchasing an additional 10,654 shares during the period. Finally, Ethic Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Nokia by 4.3% in the first quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 309,952 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,655,000 after purchasing an additional 12,796 shares in the last quarter. 5.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Nokia

Nokia Oyj provides mobile, fixed, and cloud network solutions worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Network Infrastructure, Mobile Networks, Cloud and Network Services, and Nokia Technologies. The company provides fixed networking solutions, such as fiber and copper-based access infrastructure, in-home Wi-Fi solutions, and cloud and virtualization services; IP networking solutions, including IP access, aggregation, and edge and core routing for residential, mobile, enterprise and cloud applications; optical networks solutions that provides optical transport networks for metro, regional, and long-haul applications, and subsea applications; and submarine networks for undersea cable transmission.