Nokia Corp. shares fell again Friday, placing them on target for their worst two-day results in 19 years after a profit warning was issued by the Finnish network infrastructure provider.
Nokia fell 3.1 percent to $3.78 in very active trading to hit a fourth straight fall and finish at the lowest level since June 2013.
Trading volume rose to 83.8 million shares, compared to the full-day average of 29.5 million shares, and enough to render the company the most frequently listed on major exchanges in the United States.
This followed the stock drop of 23.7 percent on Thursday after Nokia cautioned that this and next year's earnings would be smaller than originally expected, citing high costs associated with first-generation 5G devices, market competition in early contracts, and competitiveness problems in China.
The cumulative 2-day fall of 26.0 percent was the worst stock since it collapsed 26.3 percent during the dot-com bubble crash in the two days ended July 27, 2000.
From the profit warning, 6 of the 32 analysts surveyed by FactSet have downgraded Nokia, while 17 have cut their stock price expectations.
The average rating maintains the equivalent of overweight, while at the end of September the average price level fell from $6.35 to $5.30.
Michael Genovese of MKM Partners is still positive on Nokia, as he maintained the buy recommendation he had on inventory since February 2018, stating that the bar was set too high and that the 5G market was too good to give up on the stock. He cut his stock price target by 27 percent, from $7.50 to $5.50.
"We are so far disappointed by the execution of Nokia in the market of 5G hardware and 5G software," Genovese wrote to customers in a note.
However, Genovese believes that the stock guidance has now been adjusted low enough that the next changes are more likely to go up.
Analyst Michael Walkley at Canaccord Genuity also kept his purchase rating but lowered his price target to $5.50, saying valuation and a positive long-term outlook keeps him bullish.
The market has now declined 35.1 percent by Thursday, while the SPDR Technology Select Sector exchange-traded fund XLK has risen 33.9 percent by 1.28 percent and the S&P 500 benchmark SPX by 0.58 percent by 20.7 percent.
Nokia charged a 4.25 cents a share in a quarterly dividend in July. The annual dividend cost of 17 cents per share, based on current stock prices, indicates a dividend yield of 4.52 percent, more than double the estimated yield of 1.95 percent for the S&P 500, according to FactSet.
