Investors Purchase Large Volume of Nokia Oyj Call Options (NYSE:NOK)

Nokia Oyj (NYSE:NOK) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders purchased 10,704 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 61% compared to the average daily volume of 6,667 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nokia Oyj

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise increased its holdings in shares of Nokia Oyj by 48.2% during the first quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 9,229 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. Capital Management Associates Inc purchased a new position in shares of Nokia Oyj during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Tieton Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nokia Oyj during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp purchased a new position in shares of Nokia Oyj during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nokia Oyj during the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 5.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Nokia Oyj Trading Up 5.5 %

Shares of NOK traded up $0.19 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $3.67. 9,101,658 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,238,263. Nokia Oyj has a 52 week low of $2.94 and a 52 week high of $4.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.67 billion, a PE ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.09. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $3.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $3.47.

Nokia Oyj (NYSE:NOK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The technology company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $6.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.66 billion. Nokia Oyj had a return on equity of 8.39% and a net margin of 3.90%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.16 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Nokia Oyj will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nokia Oyj Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 8th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 23rd will be issued a $0.0323 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 22nd. This represents a $0.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.52%. Nokia Oyj’s payout ratio is currently 56.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on NOK shares. StockNews.com upgraded Nokia Oyj from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays downgraded Nokia Oyj from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Nokia Oyj from $4.39 to $4.26 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, BNP Paribas started coverage on shares of Nokia Oyj in a research report on Friday, January 12th. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Nokia Oyj presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $4.42.

About Nokia Oyj

Nokia Oyj provides mobile, fixed, and cloud network solutions worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Network Infrastructure, Mobile Networks, Cloud and Network Services, and Nokia Technologies. The company provides fixed networking solutions, such as fiber and copper-based access infrastructure, in-home Wi-Fi solutions, and cloud and virtualization services; IP networking solutions, including IP access, aggregation, and edge and core routing for residential, mobile, enterprise and cloud applications; optical networks solutions that provides optical transport networks for metro, regional, and long-haul applications, and subsea applications; and submarine networks for undersea cable transmission.