HELSINKI-- Nokia Corp. on Thursday posted a better-than-expected
first-quarter profit as one-off gains at its licensing business
helped offset a sharp drop in profitability at its mainstay network
arm.
The Finnish company's net profit for the three months through
March came in at EUR177 million ($196.6 million), or EUR0.05 a
share, beating a median analyst forecast of EUR166 million, or
EUR0.04 a share, according to a poll by SME Direkt, a financial
data provider.
Nokia reported a net loss of EUR239 million, or EUR0.06 a share,
for the first quarter of 2014. The losses stemmed from Nokia's
unprofitable handset unit ,which the company sold to Microsoft
Corp. in April 2014.
Quarterly revenue rose to EUR3.20 billion from EUR2.66 billion
in the year-earlier period. In addition to currency driven gains,
Nokia said its network-services business recorded robust growth
during the quarter.
But despite sales growth, higher expenses and smaller revenue
contribution from lucrative software sales pushed the underlying
operating profit margin at Nokia's network arm to 3.2% in the first
quarter from 9.3% in the year-earlier period.
Write to Juhana Rossi at juhana.rossi@wsj.com
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