Nokia’s Comeback Story Is Finally Starting to Solidify – InvestorPlace

Nokia (NYSE:NOK) isn’t a name that’s synonymous with technology leadership. And NOK stock hasn’t been held up as an example of a growth stock in many years.

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In both cases, that goes back about 15 years, when Nokia smartphones dominated the market. With Nokia’s stock down about 90% from its heyday, many investors have written the company off as a tech industry has-been. However, Nokia shares have been on the move since the stock market crash last March.

Since then, NOK stock is up 113%. So far in 2021 alone, it’s up 50%.

That year-to-date performance is considerably better than what other tech companies have done so far this year. Including the maker of the iPhone — the company that toppled Nokia from its position as the smartphone leader.

So is Nokia making a comeback? Does that make Nokia a growth stock again, and one worthy of consideration for your portfolio? It’s time for a closer look at this Portfolio Grader B-rated stock.

Feature Phones Come Full Circle, Will Nokia?

In 2007, Nokia shares were flirting with $40. At the time, the company owned 49.4% of the global smartphone market. Go back even further, to 2000, and NOK stock was near $59. That was its all-time high, and reflected Nokia’s dominance in the rapidly growing cell phone market. What we would now call feature phones.

Flash forward to 2021. Nokia-branded smartphones are being sold once again after a tumultuous decade that saw the company sell off its mobile division and then license the Nokia name to HMD Global.

As InvestorPlace’s Stavros Georgiadis recently pointed out Nokia-branded smartphones are a small player in the smartphone market with less than 1% global share. Nokia now makes its money from other tech products including networking and telecom infrastructure, network security solutions, Wi-Fi routers, smart lighting and smart TVs.

Ironically, while there has been little uptake on smartphones bearing the Nokia brand, the humble feature phone business (also run by HMD Global) is doing quite well. Currently, those Nokia feature phones hold the third place globally in sales. And believe it or not, feature phones are still popular, especially in developing markets. In Q4 2020, over 80 million were sold, worldwide.

If Nokia feature phones can make a comeback, why can’t the company whose name is emblazoned on so many of them?

Growth or Recovery? 

As I mentioned in the intro, NOK stock is up 113% since …….

Source: https://investorplace.com/2021/12/comeback-nokia-nok-stock-starting-to-solidify/