HELSINKI, July 19, 2026, 14:56 EEST
- Nokia shares fell 18.8% last week, closing Friday at €8.85.
- Q2 consensus implies 7.2% sequential sales growth but an 80-basis-point gross-margin decline.
- Nokia reports Thursday at 08:00 EEST, two hours before Helsinki trading starts.
Nokia HEL:NOKIA enters earnings week after an 18.8% share-price slide. Thursday’s gross margin is now the key test.
Consensus sales imply 7.2% quarterly growth, near management’s 5%-9% range. The same estimates put gross margin at 44.7%, down 80 basis points.
Nasdaq Helsinki was closed Sunday at publication time. Regular equity trading resumes Monday at 10:00 EEST. Nokia ended Friday at €8.85, its fifth straight daily decline.
| Market measure | Friday close | Friday move | Week move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nokia HEL:NOKIA | €8.85 | -3.3% | -18.8% |
| Ericsson STO:ERIC-B | SEK95.26 | -0.6% | -13.6% |
| OMX Helsinki 25 | 6,174.83 | +1.0% | Flat (-0.02%) |
Week moves compare July 10 and July 17 closing prices. Percentages were calculated from published market data.
Nokia trailed Ericsson by 5.2 percentage points last week. It lagged the OMXH25 by 18.7 points. That gap suggests investors saw Ericsson’s cost warning as sector-wide.
Ericsson reported second-quarter sales of SEK52.7 billion, down 6% annually. Adjusted operating profit of SEK6.52 billion beat the SEK6.42 billion consensus.
“The whole AI build-out is putting quite the pressure on the whole industry, including us,” Lars Sandström told Reuters. He is Ericsson’s chief financial officer. Reuters
| Nokia metric | Q1 actual | Q2 analyst consensus estimate | Sequential change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comparable net sales | €4.500 billion | €4.822 billion | +7.2% |
| Comparable gross margin | 45.5% | 44.7% | -80 basis points |
| Comparable operating profit | €281 million | €376 million | +33.8% |
| Comparable operating margin | 6.2% | 7.8% | +160 basis points |
Q2 figures are analyst consensus estimates, not preliminary company results.
The profit mix raises the stakes. By calculation, Q2 consensus profit equals 16.0% of the full-year estimate. That matches the top of Nokia’s 12%-16% seasonal assumption.
Any shortfall would leave more profit to earn during the second half. Sales growth alone may therefore provide limited reassurance.
Currency offers little cover. EUR/USD stood at 1.1439 Friday, only 0.5% below Nokia’s planning rate. That puts more weight on component costs and product mix.
Nokia’s Q1 AI-and-cloud sales grew 49% and reached 8% of group sales. Orders from those customers totaled €1 billion.
“We are increasing our growth assumption for Optical and IP Networks,” Chief Executive Justin Hotard said in April. Nokia Corporation | Nokia
Nokia will publish results Thursday at about 08:00 EEST. Its analyst webcast starts at 15:00 EEST.
Gross margin comes first. Order momentum and the 12%-14% Network Infrastructure growth target follow.
Risks: Sharper component inflation or slower AI-network orders could pressure margins and full-year profit.
A result near 44.7% would meet the current bar. A clear miss would reinforce the sector cost concern.
