Nokia Earnings to Meet Target but Not Sales

Nokia, the world’s largest cell phone maker, said that its third-quarter earnings were on target but warned that sales may be slightly below earlier predictions as improved handset sales failed to offset a sluggish networks market.

Nokia said earnings per share in the quarter ending Sept. 30 will be “at the upper end of the earlier indicated range” of 15 cents to 16 cents.

But it said net sales would be from $6.95 billion to $7.25 billion, instead of from $7 billion to $7.4 billion as it had previously forecast.

In line with earlier forecasts, Nokia said its handset sales will grow by 4% to 9% in the third quarter from a year ago.

It also said it was confident that total global mobile phone sales will reach 400 million this year.

In the mobile phone sector, which provides it with some 80% of its revenue, Nokia cited a “strong overall demand pickup,” especially in Europe, during July and August. This would boost the full year result, and it predicted operating margins at or above 20%.

However, it cautioned that mobile network operations were still facing hard times and said third-quarter sales in that business would fall by 5% from the same period in 2001.

Nokia’s American depositary receipts fell 31 cents to $13.87 on the New York Stock Exchange.