Nokia: Time For Bottom Fishing In Finland?

Nokia (NOK) shares have rebounded modestly today, as some analysts suggest the time has come to pick up the shares on the cheap. Last Friday, of course, the handset maker warned that 2009 global wireless phone sales would be down from 2008; that has spurred analysts all over the Street to bring down their forecasts for next year, and pressured a wide variety of stocks connected to the mobile business. Bernstein Research analyst Pierre Ferragu this morning raised his rating on Nokia to Outperform from Underperform, asserting that most of the bad news has been priced into the shares. “While we believe 2009 is going to be a bad year for the handset industry, we also believe it is going to be a trough, from which Nokia is likely to exit in a strong position to maintain its industry leadership and grow earnings beyond 2009.” Ferragu contends there shouldn’t be much incremental negative news on the handset market going forward. He doubts volumes will be any worse than his ... (link)