Lazard Asset Management LLC Acquires 1,472,509 Shares of Nokia Oyj (NYSE:NOK)

Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Nokia Oyj (NYSE:NOK) by 1,842.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,552,451 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,472,509 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Nokia Oyj were worth $6,876,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Nokia Oyj by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC now owns 178,591 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $791,000 after acquiring an additional 15,675 shares in the last quarter. Ethic Inc. grew its stake in shares of Nokia Oyj by 45.3% during the 4th quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 297,156 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,316,000 after acquiring an additional 92,644 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its stake in shares of Nokia Oyj by 12.3% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,737,855 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $16,559,000 after acquiring an additional 408,312 shares in the last quarter. Centiva Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Nokia Oyj during the 4th quarter worth approximately $409,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of Nokia Oyj by 15.5% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 36,355 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $161,000 after acquiring an additional 4,878 shares in the last quarter. 5.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on NOK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Nokia Oyj from $6.35 to $6.30 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Nokia Oyj from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $3.60 price objective for the company. in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Nokia Oyj from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.85.

Nokia Oyj Trading Down 1.5%

NYSE NOK opened at $5.10 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $27.81 billion, a PE ratio of 20.40, a PEG ratio of 6.43 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Nokia Oyj has a 12 month low of $3.57 and a 12 month high of $5.48. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $5.10 and a 200-day moving average of $4.77.

Nokia Oyj (NYSE:NOK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.05 by ($0.02). Nokia Oyj had a net margin of 6.54% and a return on equity of 10.30%. The business had revenue of $4.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.09 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Nokia Oyj will post 0.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nokia Oyj Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.0336 per share. This is an increase from Nokia Oyj’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 5th. This represents a $0.13 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.64%. Nokia Oyj’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 106.67%.

Nokia Oyj Company Profile

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.