Nokia (NOK) Stock Surges After Morgan Stanley Sets Street-High Price Target

Key Takeaways Morgan Stanley elevated Nokia’s price target to €8.50 from €6.50, establishing the highest analyst target on Wall Street with an Overweight rating The bullish call stems from accelerating AI and cloud infrastructure investments, especially in optical and IP networking sectors While AI/cloud revenue represents just ~6% of Nokia’s total sales, Morgan Stanley projects robust ~13% growth in this segment through 2026 Recent analyst downgrades from DNB Carnegie and Danske Bank created headwinds, coupled with Nokia’s lowered 2026 profit guidance Nokia’s ADR (NOK) traded around $7.90 on Tuesday, while the Helsinki-listed shares have climbed approximately 24% year-to-date Nokia, the telecommunications equipment giant based in Finland, received a significant boost this week when Morgan Stanley designated it as a top pick and established a new Wall Street-leading price target. Nokia Oyj, NOK The financial institution increased its price objective to €8.50 from €6.50, maintaining an Overweight rating. This valuation surpasses all other analysts tracking the company, based on Bloomberg’s compiled data. The upgrade comes on the heels of impressive results from Ciena, a competitor in optical networking, which delivered robust cloud-driven revenue expansion. Morgan Stanley believes these figures validate the thesis that Nokia’s own projections for its Optical and IP business unit may be understated. Nokia has provided guidance for 10% to 12% revenue expansion in this division. However, Morgan Stanley is modeling approximately 13% growth, with optical networking revenue specifically projected to surge over 20%, driven by hyperscale data center operators. The shares have experienced significant volatility in recent weeks. Helsinki-traded Nokia shares jumped more than 12% in the prior week and soared over 37% across the past month — creating conditions ripe for some consolidation. The stock retreated roughly 5% midweek after dropping below its 5-day moving average. Th...