Nokia 3rd Quarter Profit Drops

[Barry]

Nokia reported lower third-quarter earnings on Thursday after cutting prices to claw back market share, but said sales were strong as it enters the key Christmas season.

Nokia has slashed prices on some handsets while it prepares to introduce a new range of products, due later this year. It is trying to combat Asian rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. (005930.KS), which have proved more adept in producing the sort of camera and color-screen phones consumers want.


The average forecast given in a Reuters poll of 28 analysts before Thursday's results was for EPS of 0.18 euros in the fourth quarter, with expectations ranging from 0.14 to 0.20 euros, but some analysts said they suspected Nokia was being cautious -- as it had been with its third-quarter forecasts.

The firm also pleased with its sales outlook for the fourth quarter of 8.4 billion to 8.6 billion euros ($10.4-10.6 billion). While this is down from the 8.8 billion euros it made a year ago, it is well above the average of analysts' forecasts of 8.17 billion given in the poll.



Nokia's third-quarter earnings fell to 0.14 euros per share from 0.17 euros a year ago. But the result was up on the most recent company forecast of 11 cents to 13 cents given last month.

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