Nokia, the Finnish telecommunications equipment maker, released its latest earnings report on Thursday, revealing figures that fell slightly short of analyst expectations. However, despite this setback, the outlook for the year ahead has sparked optimism among investors.
The company reported earnings-per-share of 10 euro cents ($0.11), falling just below the FactSet consensus of 12 cents. Additionally, overall sales figures also missed estimates.
Nevertheless, there were grounds for encouragement as Nokia demonstrated its commitment to controlling costs. As a result, the stock experienced a 6.5% surge in Helsinki trading, and its American depositary receipts saw a premarket increase of 7.9%.
Both Nokia and its competitor, Sweden’s Ericsson, have experienced challenges due to a decline in demand for 5G mobile phone networking equipment. However, Nokia’s CEO, Pekka Lundmark, expressed an optimistic outlook, stating that although the slump is likely to persist for some time, he sees “green shoots on the horizon” in the second half of the year.
Nokia expects to leverage the benefits from its ongoing cost-cutting campaigns as demand rebounds. In fact, the company had already announced plans to reduce its workforce by 14,000 jobs back in October.
While Ericsson’s American depositary receipts increased by 1.4%, U.S. rivals AT&T and Verizon experienced minor declines of approximately 0.3%.
