If You Invested $1,000 In Nokia Stock One Year Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Now

Investors who have owned stocks in the past year have generally experienced some big gains. But there is no question some big-name stocks performed better than others along the way.

Nokia’s Difficult Road: One company that has been a rollercoaster investment in the past year has been telecom equipment company Nokia Oyj NOK.

Entering 2020, many investors had hoped Nokia would be a great play on the global rollout of 5G wireless networks. The 5G infrastructure market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 67% and hit $47.8 billion by 2027, according to MarketsandMarkets. Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic and competition from Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson ERIC and others has made life much more difficult for Nokia.

In 2019, Nokia generated a $7 million net profit on $23.3 billion in revenue. In 2020, those numbers dropped to a net loss of $2.5 billion on just $21.8 billion in revenue.

See also: How to Buy Nokia (NOK) Stock

At the beginning of 2020, Nokia shares were trading around $3.85. By the beginning of March, the stock was still hovering around $3.90 despite news of the virus spreading in China prompting concerns about a U.S. pandemic. On March 16, Nokia shares dropped all the way down to $2.38 in intraday trading, its low point of the pandemic. Fortunately for Nokia investors, the stock rebounded along with the rest of the market in the weeks that followed.

Nokia shares recovered to as high as $5.14 in August 2020 amid the broad market rally. Unfortunately, Verizon Communications Inc. VZ pulled the rug out from under Nokia in September when the company jumped ship to sign a 5G deal with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd SSNLF.

Following the Verizon news, Nokia shares dropped all the way back down to $3.21 in late October.

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Nokia In 2021, Beyond: Fortunately for Nokia investors the stock got caught in the middle of a massive coordinated buying campaign in January 2021. Reddit’s WallStreetBets community made Nokia one of its primary stocks to buy as part of its targeted short squeeze effort.

The short squeeze sent the stock skyrocketing from under $4.50 per share to as high as $9.79 in a matter of days. Since the dust has settled on the short squeeze, Nokia shares are now back down to $4.22.

Nokia investors who bought one year ago and held on through the squeeze were still able to make a decent return on their investment. In fact, $1,000 in Nokia stock bought on April 26, 2020, would be worth about $1,244 today, assuming reinvested dividends.

Looking ahead, analysts are expecting Nokia to once again drift higher in the next 12 months. The average price target among the 25 analysts covering the stock is $4.79, suggesting 13.5% upside from current levels.

(Photo: Nokia)