Citron Research@CitronResearch
$NOK — why comps make it a $20 stock TODAY, not someday!
Before we talk about Nokia, Citron owes readers an apology. We've been too negative on the AI data center trade. We missed it and called tops way too early.
Here's what has been learned: the best trade isn't shorting the stocks that already tripled. It's finding the one the market hasn't figured out yet.
That's Nokia. Who cares that it is a 52 week high....looks like it is going higher
While telecom analysts are still valuing Nokia as a slow-growth utility. However, with the Network Infrastructure segment now targeting 18%–20% growth in Optical/IP, the narrative is shifting toward a high performance hardware play.
The whole story in plain English
Nokia makes the equipment that moves data between AI data centers. As AI grows, those highways need to get wider and faster. Nokia builds the highways.
A year ago, Nokia bought a company called Infinera , which meant Nokia went from reselling other people's chips to owning its own chip factories. That's a huge deal. Every other company in this space that owns their own chips (Lumentum, Coherent) trades at a massive premium. Nokia doesn't yet. The market hasn't caught on.
Nokia also hired a new CEO last year Justin Hotard, who came straight from running Intel's AI business. This is not a telecom guy. This is an AI guy now running Nokia. And in October, Nokia signed a $1 billion partnership with NVIDIA that came with an investment.
Last $NVDA investment Citron told you about was $NBIS when it was $20 a share...yes !
Now the numbers. Nokia management has literally told investors what the company will earn in 2028. Add it up and you get roughly 50 cents per share in earnings by 2028. That's their number, not ours.
Here's the thing nobody's doing the math on: every other AI infrastructure stock is already priced based on what they'll earn in 2028. Ciena trades at 49 times those earnings. Coherent at 46 times. Apply the same math to Nokia 50 cents times 49 and the stock is worth $24.50 right now. Today!!
And here's gravy. On last week's earnings call, the CEO said , out of nowhere, nobody asked — "a big milestone later this year with NVIDIA." Seven Wall Street analysts were on that call. None of them followed up. None of them asked what he meant.
When Lumentum got its NVIDIA moment, the stock went from $49 to $960. Nokia just told you its NVIDIA moment is coming this year. And the stock hasn't moved.
That's the whole trade. Nokia is the AI infrastructure stock the market forgot to reprice.
Missed the first wave of this. We're not missing the second.