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Nokia Corp. on Thursday posted a forecast-beating fourth-quarter net profit as demand for mobile networks and network infrastructure remained strong while demand trends remain solid looking into 2023.
The Finnish telecommunications company
NOKIA,
-0.55%
NOK,
+1.76%
said its mobile networks unit delivered 3% growth in the quarter on a constant-currency basis, while the operating margin declined on year as expected due to changes in regional mix.
Mobile networks had strong sales growth in India and Europe, while Latin America and Asia Pacific also grew. North America declined in the quarter as had been expected, it said.
Comparable net profit for the quarter rose to 931 million euros ($1.02 billion) from EUR727 million a year earlier as sales rose 16% to EUR7.45 billion, it said.
Analysts polled by FactSet had expected comparable net profit of EUR744 million on sales of EUR7.16 billion.
Nokia said it targets full-year sales of between EUR24.9 billion and EUR26.5 billion, which implies between 2% and 8% growth in constant currency. It is guiding for full-year comparable operating margin at 11.5%-14.0%.
“Looking forward to 2023, while we are mindful of the uncertain economic outlook, demand remains robust,” Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark said.
“We expect another year of growth.”
Nokia proposed a full-year dividend of EUR0.12, up from EUR0.08 in 2021.
Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com
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