TLDR
- Nokia stock rose 4.15% in after-hours trading Tuesday, following a 5.46% gain during the regular session
- Q2 earnings are due Thursday before market open, with Wall Street expecting GAAP EPS of €0.04 on revenue of €4.83 billion
- Nokia’s Q1 results showed a 49% spike in revenue from AI and cloud customers
- JPMorgan holds an Overweight rating with a price target of $21
- The stock is up over 60% year-to-date, against the S&P 500’s ~10% gain
Nokia (NOK) stock has had a strong two days heading into Thursday’s Q2 earnings report. The stock climbed 5.46% during Tuesday’s regular session to close at $10.63, then added another 4.15% in after-hours to reach $11.07.
Thursday’s report will cover Q2 and half-year 2026 results, releasing at approximately 8 a.m. Finnish time. Nokia said a summary of group-level results and outlook will drop first, with detailed segment data available in the full report on its website.
Wall Street is expecting GAAP EPS of €0.04 on revenue of €4.83 billion for the quarter.
The results will be a key check on whether Nokia’s momentum is holding. In Q1, the company reported revenue of $5.26 billion, which missed analyst estimates by 2.50%.
Despite that miss, Nokia’s AI-related numbers stood out. Q1 saw a 49% spike in revenue from AI and cloud customers, a figure that caught attention across the market.
Off the back of that, Nokia raised its revenue outlook for the Network Infrastructure segment to growth of 12% to 14%, up from a prior forecast of 6% to 8%.
AI and 5G Driving the Story
Nokia recently announced it developed what it calls the industry’s first commercial AI-powered radio access network platform, built in collaboration with Nvidia (NVDA). The goal is to increase data transmission capacity over existing telecom infrastructure.
The company also struck a 5G expansion deal with Taiwan Mobile last week, deploying its AirScale portfolio and AI-driven software across Taiwan’s mobile network.
These moves have helped fuel investor interest heading into earnings.
Analyst Views Split
Not everyone is rushing in though. Seeking Alpha’s quant ratings and analyst coverage both sit at Hold, while Wall Street analysts lean toward Buy.
One Seeking Alpha analyst put it plainly: “Q2 should provide the first meaningful test, particularly in IP networks and margins. The earnings ramp could justify the current price if management keeps delivering, but at roughly 29x 2026 earnings, Nokia no longer has much room for an ordinary quarter.”
That valuation point matters. At 29x forward earnings, the stock is priced for continued execution.
JPMorgan maintained its Overweight rating in June and lifted its price target to $21 from $14, a move that added credibility to the bull case.
Nokia’s RSI currently sits at 36.79, with the stock trading near the middle of its 52-week range — at 49.3% between its low of $4 and high of $17.45.
The stock carries a Momentum score in the 94th percentile according to Benzinga’s Edge rankings, pointing to short and medium-term consolidation within a longer-term uptrend.
Nokia has gained 138.34% over the past 12 months and is up over 60% year-to-date, well ahead of the S&P 500’s roughly 10% gain in the same period.
Thursday’s report will be the next real test of whether the AI and optical network demand story has legs in Q2.
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