Strong Second Quarter for Nokia

Nokia delivered a strong second quarter, driven by 5G demand, a competitive end-to-end portfolio and strengthened operational execution. Given these results, the company confirmed their full-year 2019 guidance.

"In the quarter, we saw good year-on-year growth, meaningful improvements in profitability, robust progress in our strategic expansion areas of Software and Enterprise and excellent momentum in our IP Routing business. We also continued to enhance our position in 5G, and now have 45 commercial 5G deals and 9 live networks," said Rajeev Suri, President and CEO, Nokia.

"Risks remain in the year, including execution demands in the second half, trade-related uncertainty and challenges in the China market. Given these risks, we will continue to focus on tight operational discipline, delivering on our EUR 700 million cost-savings program, improving working capital management and advancing the implementation of our strategy," Suri said.

Net sales in Q2 were 5.7 billion euros, compared with 5.3 billion in the same period last year. On a constant currency basis, net sales increased 5%. Strong performance was driven by improved industry demand, with growth across four out of six regions and all customer types.

Non-IFRS diluted EPS in the quarter was 0.05 euros, compared to 0.03 last year. It was primarily driven by solid operational execution, which yielded gross profit improvements across Networks, Nokia Software and Nokia Technologies. Reported diluted EPS was negative 0.03 euros, compared to negative 0.05 in Q2 2018. Company officials said that they have maintained full year 2019 guidance, with seasonality characterized by weaker first and third quarters and stronger second and fourth quarters.