Nokia Earnings Beat Expectations

HELSINKI-- Nokia Corp. on Thursday posted a better-than-expected first-quarter profit as one-off gains at its licensing business helped offset a sharp drop in profitability at its mainstay network arm.

The Finnish company's net profit for the three months through March came in at EUR177 million ($196.6 million), or EUR0.05 a share, beating a median analyst forecast of EUR166 million, or EUR0.04 a share, according to a poll by SME Direkt, a financial data provider.

Nokia reported a net loss of EUR239 million, or EUR0.06 a share, for the first quarter of 2014. The losses stemmed from Nokia's unprofitable handset unit ,which the company sold to Microsoft Corp. in April 2014.

Quarterly revenue rose to EUR3.20 billion from EUR2.66 billion in the year-earlier period. In addition to currency driven gains, Nokia said its network-services business recorded robust growth during the quarter.

But despite sales growth, higher expenses and smaller revenue contribution from lucrative software sales pushed the underlying operating profit margin at Nokia's network arm to 3.2% in the first quarter from 9.3% in the year-earlier period.

Write to Juhana Rossi at [e-mail]

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