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Technology Stocks : Nokia (NOK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 49thMIMOMander who wrote (10250)	4/2/2001 7:18:14 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 34857

ERICSSON/NOKIA: ANALYSTS FOOLED BY COMPANY FORECASTS - DI (News agency Direkt) -- Analysts have to scrutinize company forecasts more closely in order to avoid the unpleasant surprises delivered by the telecom market recently, according to three telecom analysts in Dagens Industri Monday. "I let myself be fooled by Nokia and its handset forecast in December when the company was still extremely optimistic," said Lars Soderfjell, analyst at Handelsbanken to DI. The three analysts, Johan Strandberg at Deutsche Bank, Helena Norman-Knutson at Ohman, and Soderfjell expect a sharp slowdown in the industry and mentioned growth rates of 10-15% for this year. They don`t share Ericsson CEO Kurt Hellstrom`s view that growth rates could be back at levels of 25-35% already next year. "Absolutely not. Possibly close to 20%," said Nordman-Knutson. The most uncertain element in making long-term forecasts for mobile system sales is the issue of traffic in the networks. The three analysts agree that the third generation`s mobile telephony will be a success despite being delayed one year. However, Ericsson and Nokia will still have to count on declining margins. "The margin may fall as much as 5%," Strandberg said, referring to Ericsson Network`s record-high margin of 17% last year. Strandberg and Soderfjell gave a buy recommendation to both Ericsson and Nokia while Nordman-Knutsson was more cautious. "With this much worry in the telecom industry, we shouldn`t expect a turnaround of the stock price. I don`t see anything that would ignite a stock rise in the next half-year aside from a handset partnership for Ericsson," she said to DI.