Nokia (NOK) to Report Q1 Earnings: What's in the Cards?

Nokia Corporation NOK is scheduled to report first-quarter 2018 financial results before the opening bell on Apr 26. The company is likely to report higher revenues backed by healthy growth dynamics.

Whether this could result in higher earnings for the quarter remains to be seen.

Factors at Play

Nokia remains poised to benefit from four strategic priorities. The first is to lead in high-performance end-to-end networks with its communication service provider customers. The second is its relentless pursuit to expand network sales. Building a strong standalone software business remains the third. The fourth is aimed at creating new business and licensing opportunities in the consumer ecosystem.

With focused approach on its strategic priorities, Nokia is likely to record higher revenues in first quarter. The company’s total revenues for the quarter are expected to be $6,271 million, up from $5,730 million reported in the year-earlier quarter.

During the quarter, Nokia signed an agreement with T-Mobile and Intel on 5G network to introduce a 28 GHz outdoor 5G commercial radio system on air in Bellevue, WA. The collaboration supports the companies’ objective to uplift standards, facilitate the 5G ecosystem of chipsets and devices and provide the best network experience to Un-carrier customers. The company also inked a five-year contract with Tele2 to aid its enterprise customers with a smooth delivery of IoT (Internet of Things) services. The provision will be based on Nokia's worldwide IoT network grid (WING), a one-stop-shop IoT managed facility including a pre-integrated global IoT core network, connectivity management and dedicated IoT operations. Such collaborations are likely to lead to top-line growth in the quarter.

However, Nokia has significant operations outside the United States. Given its international presence, the company remains exposed to geopolitical turmoil, which might impact its profitability in the quarter.   

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Nokia is likely to beat estimates this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. But that is not the case here as elaborated below.  

Zacks ESP: Nokia has an Earnings ESP of -10.00%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

 

Nokia Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

 

Nokia Corporation Price and EPS Surprise | Nokia Corporation Quote

 

Zacks Rank: Nokia has a Zacks Rank #3, which increases the predictive power of ESP. However, the company’s negative ESP acts as a spoiler.

We caution against all Sell-rated stocks (#4 or 5) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stocks to Consider

Here are some companies that you may want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:

Twitter, Inc. TWTR has an Earnings ESP of +12.50% and a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Brink's Company BCO has an Earnings ESP of +5.25% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Merit Medical Systems, Inc. MMSI has an Earnings ESP of +4.05% and a Zacks Rank #2.

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