ESPOO (dpa-AFX) - Nokia Oyj (NOK, NOKIA_SEK.ST, NOKIA.PA, NOKIA.HE), a major Finnish telecom company, on Thursday posted a net profit for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, helped by increased sales as a result of strong demand.
Justin Hotard, CEO of Nokia, said: 'We delivered a solid start to the year, with net sales growing 4%, gross margin expanding 320bps and operating margin expanding 200bps in the first quarter. Demand continued to be strong, particularly in AI & Cloud, where net sales grew 49% and now account for 8% of group sales. We also booked EUR 1 billion of orders from AI & Cloud customers in the quarter.'
For the first quarter, the company posted a net income of EUR 87 million, or EUR 0.02 per share, compared with a net loss of EUR 60 million, or EUR 0.01 per share in the same period last year.
Excluding items, earnings were EUR 295 million, or EUR 0.05 per share, higher than EUR 153 million, or EUR 0.03 per share in the previous year. This increase was supported by the net positive impact from financial income and expenses due to valuation changes in venture funds and similar equity investments and foreign exchange rate fluctuations.
Operating profit stood at EUR 62 million as against a loss of EUR 21 million a year ago.
Net sales moved up to EUR 4.497 billion from EUR 4.390 billion last year, helped by continued strong demand, particularly in AI & Cloud. Net sales from AI & Cloud surged to EUR 350 million from the prior year's EUR 180 million.
For fiscal 2025, the Board will pay a dividend of EUR 0.04 per share on May 7 to the shareholders of record as of April 28. Following this announced dividend, the Board's remaining distribution authorization stands at a maximum of EUR 0.10 per share.
Looking ahead, for fiscal 2026, the Finnish company has reaffirmed its comparable operating profit outlook of EUR 2 billion to 2.5 billion. For fiscal 2025, Nokia had reported a comparable operating profit of EUR 2 billion.
Copyright(c) 2026 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2026 AFX News
