Aktie im Blick: Nokia ist wieder da – keiner ist besser im Euro Stoxx 50

Nokia has regained prominence as the top-performing stock in the Euro Stoxx 50, with a staggering 120% increase over the past year. Originally a producer of rubber-soled shoes, tires, and cables in the 1960s, Nokia became a major player in the dotcom bubble in 2000, valued at 270 billion euros. However, the company failed to adapt to the smartphone trend, losing 97% of its value over two and a half decades until 2025.

Today, Nokia is no longer a telecom company, having sold its mobile phone business to Microsoft in 2014. The acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent ten years ago bolstered its network equipment business. Nokia now offers optical transmission technology for data traffic between data centers and network devices for server and storage communication.

The US chipmaker Nvidia recently announced a 1 billion dollar investment in Nokia to make mobile networks more efficient through Artificial Intelligence (AI). Both companies are also working on techniques for future 6G networks. Nokia's revenue from cloud and AI customers doubled in the second quarter, with the order backlog rising to 2.8 billion euros. Analysts expect net profits of 1.3 billion euros for the current and next fiscal year, leading to higher profitability as profits grow faster than revenues.

Nokia's stock price has been significantly impacted by the rapid rise, reaching over 50 billion euros. It entered the Euro Stoxx 50 in September, forcing ETFs and funds to buy the stock. However, the high KI (Artificial Intelligence) order backlog may translate into rising revenues and profits, lifting margins despite high investments and supply chain costs.

The quarters results on October 22 will provide more insight. Despite the rapid price increase, the stock is expensive, with investors paying nearly 24 times the projected net profits in the next twelve months. The price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) is based on analyst predictions for net profits over the next year, which is 15 times lower than the average over the past decade.

The high valuation makes the stock vulnerable to downturns. Nokia depends on the investment cycles of major cloud providers, and the strong competition from companies like Cisco Systems, Arista, Ciena in the US, Ericsson in Sweden, and Huawei in China poses a risk. Analysts are cautiously optimistic, with 17 buy recommendations against six "hold" and seven "sell" opinions.