Instant View: Nokia holds more cash than feared, posts steep loss

(Reuters) – Nokia made a slightly smaller loss than expected and ended the second quarter with more cash than investors feared, despite losing market share to Apple and Samsung Electronics.

Shares in Nokia were up 14.8 percent by 1052 GMT.

The following are analysts’ reactions to the news.

SANDEEP DESHPANDE, ANALYST AT J.P. MORGAN

“The operating margin is worse than expected, the cash flow is weak if you exclude royalty prepayments.”

“The volumes are good, but we don’t know whether there was channel stuffing, but the Lumia volume as well as the mobile phone volume was good.”

“They have guided to margins being just as bad in the third quarter. The third quarter is going to be the most difficult quarter for Nokia.”

MIKAEL RAUTANEN, INDERES

“There were small glimpses of hope, the net cash position was better-than-expected and an important piece of news that calms the markets.”

“In mobile devices the results was very bad and the guidance indicates serious problems will continue in the third quarter.”

“In the third quarter Nokia has to sell outdated Symbian phones and outdated Lumia phones, as they will not get the Windows Phone 8 update.”

JANARDAN MENON AT LIBERUM CAPITAL

“Revenues were slightly ahead of our expectations, 4 million Lumia sales were also slightly ahead. The margin, if you take off the inventory writedown, was also slightly ahead of our forecasts. Cash was better, so in general somewhat better than what our worst fears.

“On the other hand, Q3 guidance is weak, as we expected. The key question is what will happen in Q4 once they get their phones with the new Microsoft Windows Phone 8 into the market.”

PETE CUNNINGHAM, ANALYST AT CANALYS

“Nokia’s results are pretty much as expected. It has the same old problem that it cannot ramp up Lumia shipments quick enough to offset the decline in Symbian.”

“I thought that its U.S. number was disappointing when you consider the investment that it has made with its Lumia handsets and the strategic importance of the U.S. to Nokia’s long term strategy. It shows that both Nokia and Microsoft still have a lot of work to do.”

LEE SIMPSON, ANALYST AT JEFFERIES CO

“The margin was weak on smartdevices, and I’m surprised by the (market) reaction, it can only be a short squeeze in our opinion.”

“The reduction in cash burn is a positive, the top line is good, and the tone is trying to be as positive as they can, but I do think they stretched things somewhat with the tone.”

“I don’t think there’s anything fundamentally fixed, and a guide of minus 9 percent again in DS (Devices and Services) came as a bit of a shock to us. So I’m perplexed by the strength of the reaction.”

GEOFF BLABER, ANALYST AT CCS INSIGHT

“The deterioration in profitability is alarming but crucially, Nokia defended its mobile phones business and avoided further sales erosion.”

“Nokia will point to encouraging Lumia progress but it faces a hugely challenging third quarter before it can launch new Windows Phone 8 devices.”

SAMI SARKAMIES, NORDEA

“Lumia (devices) shipping number and the cash position were the two most important numbers.”

“The report overall was good, Lumia and basic devices sales were as expected.”

“What was negative was the poor profitability in devices unit in the second quarter and the guidance for the third quarter.”

HELENA NORDMAN-KNUTSON, OHMAN

“We had two major worries ahead of the numbers, volumes and cash flow. But they are not losing sales volumes, it is in fact stabilizing. Secondly, we were worried by the cash flow, but that’s also going well.”

“The outlook was probably more on the negative side though.”

NICK DILLON, ANALYST AT OVUM

“After a seemingly endless run of bad news, these results offer a glimmer of hope for Nokia.”

“The company has managed to double the sales of Lumia devices since the last quarter – if it can maintain this momentum then it could be on the road to recovery.”

(By Tarmo Virki, Terhi Kinnunen, Terje Solsvik, Paul Sandle)

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