Nokia is in store for yet another rough quarter according to Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley. The struggling Finnish phone vendor posted a massive €954 million operating loss last quarter, and Walkley thinks the company’s first quarter of 2012 could disappoint again. “We are lowering our estimates ahead of Nokia’s Q1/12 earnings report as our checks indicate weak Symbian sales, seasonally soft feature phone sales, and a slow ramp in Windows smartphones,” the analyst wrote, reiterating a Hold rating on shares of Nokia stock and lowering his price target to $5. Read on for more.
“Our global checks indicated mixed Lumia sales with price declines helping sales trends in Europe,” Walkley said. “However, our checks indicated extremely poor Symbian sales trends and seasonally soft feature phone sales, resulting in our lowered Q1/12 Devices and Services sales estimate from 4.9B to 4.7B.”
The analyst sees a potential upside for Nokia moving forward, though he does indicate that 2012 may be a make-or-break year for Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. “While we believe global wireless carriers intend to diversify product portfolios and support Windows smartphones, we view 2012 as a critical year for the Windows ecosystem to gain market share,” Walkley wrote. “Given the investment necessary to grow the ecosystem, we view 2012 as a transitional year and anticipate a modest pro forma loss for Nokia.”
