Jefferies has reiterated its buy rating on Nokia with a price target of 13.80 euros, according to media reports, leaving the recommendation unchanged. Shares in the Finnish telecom equipment maker were up 2.9% on the day of the note.
The endorsement lands alongside a quarter in which Nokia’s AI and cloud business was the standout performer. Revenue from AI and cloud customers climbed 123% to 631 million euros, while related order intake rose 118% to 1.5 billion euros — a book of business that now sits well ahead of the revenue it has so far converted.
Third-quarter figures hold up
Nokia’s report on 22 October showed group revenue of 5,154 million euros for the third quarter of 2026, up 10% year on year on a reported basis. Comparable operating profit advanced 35% to 605 million euros.
Management kept its full-year guidance for comparable operating profit at between 2.1 billion and 2.6 billion euros, and guided for a sequential revenue increase of 20% to 24% in the fourth quarter.
The cash side of the ledger is less comfortable. Roughly two weeks before the quarterly update, Nokia cut its outlook for free cash flow conversion to 35%–55%, citing working capital needs and restructuring payments. The stock fell 3.3% a day before the Jefferies note; no confirmed link has been established between that decline and the company announcements.
From lab tests to live networks
Nokia’s AI push is moving from proof-of-concept into commercial networks. On 21 October, Nokia, NVIDIA and T-Mobile demonstrated an AI-RAN call over T-Mobile’s commercial mobile network, combining Nokia radio equipment and software with NVIDIA’s Aerial RAN Computer platform.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Nokia?
An O2 trial in London, reported on 26 October, put AI-driven RAN through its paces in a live network and delivered an improvement in spectral efficiency of up to roughly 20%. Nokia and O2 also flagged the ongoing AI-powered radio deployment at the Paddington site in the capital.
A day later, Nokia and NVIDIA unveiled further AI capabilities for radio access networks, including AI applications embedded in radio signal processing and a sovereign platform built around AI agents for running telecom networks.
Exploration versus execution
Not every announcement carries a purchase order. Nokia and Semidynamics signed a memorandum of understanding to examine how Semidynamics’ AI accelerators and liquid-cooled racks could be integrated with Nokia’s data-center fabric solutions. The agreement covers exploratory work only — no commercial order, purchase or installation contract was announced.
On the services side, L&T Technology Services disclosed on 27 October a five-year development and research mandate with Nokia spanning product development, software engineering, system integration and support. Financial terms were not made public.
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