The thing with almost every financial statement is that it can be read in either a positive or negative light. Nokia’s Q1 report is just like that. On one hand, the wireless company actually pushed a good amount of handsets out during the first quarter of the year. That being said, the sales numbers are less than the previous year, which doesn’t ride well for year vs year comps. However, even with reporting a 90% drop in profit from Q1 of 2009 verses Q1 of 2008, the Nokia stock is trading up for the day.
Yes, a 90.6% loss in profit verse the previous year is huge, but the company is still pushing out handsets and has big plans for this year. Plus, Nokia made major restructuring changes the last few months including, laying off a 1,700 workers, canceling contracts, and basically trimming down the operations of the world’s largest handset maker. This, folks, is how you ride out a global economic downturn.