Nokia Shares Leap 9% to 52-Week High, Closing In on Morgan Stanley's Upgraded Target

Nokia shares jumped 9.24% to €13.30, a 52-week high, after opening an AI Networking Lab and receiving a Morgan Stanley price target hike to €14. Year-to-date gain 138.86%.

Nokia’s stock closed at €13.30 on Friday, just 5% shy of the new €14 price target Morgan Stanley unveiled a day earlier. The 9.24% jump pushed the Finnish telecom-equipment maker to a fresh 52-week high — a level last seen on 22 May 2026 — and brought its year-to-date gain to 138.86%. Over the past twelve months the shares have more than doubled, adding 178.36%.

The rally was triggered by two events that converged within 48 hours. On Thursday, Nokia inaugurated an AI Networking Innovation Lab in Sunnyvale, California, dedicated to validating network architectures for large-scale AI training and real-time inference. The facility will test new protocols, switching chips, hardware platforms and automation tools, with a focus on congestion control and telemetry under realistic AI workloads. Partners include AMD, Everpure, Keysight, Lenovo, Nscale, Supermicro, VIAVI and Weka — a multi-vendor lineup that underscores Nokia’s strategy to deliver validated designs rather than a proprietary stack.

The following morning, Morgan Stanley lifted its price target on Nokia from €11 to €14, reaffirming the stock as a top pick. The bank cited Nokia’s expanding role in connecting data centres for AI and cloud infrastructure. For the US-listed shares, the target rose to $16.50. The upgrade came against a backdrop of solid first?quarter results released in April, in which Nokia’s AI? and cloud?customer revenue surged 49% year on year. That segment now contributes 8% of group sales, and orders from it reached €1 billion in a single quarter.

The lab opening is more than a technical project. Nokia is betting that validated high?performance networks will lower integration risk for hyperscalers building massive GPU clusters — a market where outages and bottlenecks can be ruinously expensive. By separating itself from traditional telecom?equipment assumptions, the company is convincing investors that its infrastructure business has a credible second act in AI data centres. Optical Networks, already the standout division, posted 20% revenue growth in Q1, helping Network Infrastructure overall rise 6%.

Despite the furious pace of the rally — the shares have gained 55.99% in the past 30 days alone — the stock is not obviously overextended, at least on the basis of the analyst target. With the new €14 goal still several percent above Friday’s close, there is some headroom, but not much. The 7?day advance of 11.30% highlights how quickly the narrative has shifted. The price now trades 45.78% above its 50?day moving average and 113.72% above the 200?day line, reflecting the sudden re?rating.

Nokia’s fundamental picture supports the optimism, though the valuation has clearly run ahead of the bottom line. Comparable revenue rose 4% in the first quarter, with a gross margin of 45.5%. Free cash flow reached €0.6 billion, while comparable diluted earnings per share came in at €0.05. For the full year, management stuck to its target for comparable operating profit of €2.0?2.5 billion. The market now wants to see whether the AI?related orders translate into sustained margin improvement.

Looking further ahead, Nokia expects Network Infrastructure revenue to expand 12?14% in 2026, with IP Networks and Optical Networks together growing 18?20%. Consensus compiled by Infront projects 2026 sales of €20.784 billion and comparable operating profit of €2.364 billion — figures that would put Nokia squarely within its own guidance range. The Sunnyvale lab is not a one?off signal; it is part of a broader push to embed Nokia’s networking gear into the next generation of AI?focused data centres.

For the stock, the immediate test is whether it can break decisively above €13.30. A move through that level would open uncharted territory. Any stumble, however, could trigger a reassessment of the rapid rally, especially with the shares now so close to the analyst target. The next concrete catalysts are the second?quarter order intake and the half?year report in July, which will show whether the momentum from the first quarter has been sustained. For now, the convergence of a new lab, a fresh analyst upgrade and blockbuster customer demand has put Nokia in a position that few investors would have predicted six months ago.