Both Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. posted first-quarter results above expectations, news that helped bump up the tech-heavy Nasdaq around 1.5 percent to 1943 points.
Nokia and Motorola too enjoyed investors’ enthusiasm. Nokia’s stock bounced up around 6 percent to $16.25 per share, while Motorola’s stock leaped around 5 percent to $15.74 per share.
First up, Nokia posted results ahead of many analysts’ predictions, with a 17-percent year-over-year jump in net sales to $9.7 billion and an 18-percent increase in net profits to about $1.1 billion. In its mobile-phones business, Nokia shipped a total of 53.8 million handsets, mainly on its successes in China. The company’s Chinese gains were offset by a decline in its North American and Latin American phone business.
The company’s networks business posted a first-quarter net sales increase of 6 percent and an increase in its operating profit.
Motorola too posted results above expectations with a 10-percent increase in net sales to $8.2 billion and a boost in its net earnings to $692 million. In its mobile-phone business, Motorola reported shipping 28.7 million units in the quarter, way ahead of most expectations and notably more than rival Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s 24.5 million shipments.
Motorola’s networks business posted sales of $1.7 billion, up 15 percent compared with the year-ago quarter, and a jump in operating earnings to $234 million.
The solid earnings reports from the handset industry’s top two players could serve to raise estimates for handset sales this year. Indeed, Nokia increased its total shipment forecast for the industry to 740 million units.
In other handset news, Western Wireless Corp. announced it would sell Nokia’s clamshell-style 6255i CDMA phone for $100 with a service agreement.
