Nokia’s Run Isn’t Over Yet, Says Najarian

If Nokia (NOK) has fallen off your radar over the last few years you're not alone. The Finnish handset maker has slipped from relevancy, plagued by product missteps, poor management and a staggering loss of market share. Most of those factors are still in play, but Jon Najarian, co-founder of OptionMonster.com, says he's not giving up on Nokia just yet.

"Nokia has made a furious comeback actually and has a very cool line of phones!" Najarian says in the attached clip. The comeback isn't really about the phones themselves. They may be cool but not even a Nokia bull like Najarian thinks the iPhone is under serious threat. The new handsets keep Nokia in the game but don't catapult it back into the lead.

For the purposes of Najarian's trade, staying alive may be enough to give Nokia a bid. His reasoning is based in part on somewhat obscure rules at certain institutional investment houses preventing them from owning stocks priced at under $5 a share. The fact that Nokia has a $15 billion market capitalization is irrelevant.

After it's greater than 100% run from the lows of last summer Nokia has run as high as $4.64 a share recently. According to Najarian, institutions still have only an 11% stake in the shares compared to 80% for other handset makers. Najarian thinks Nokia will find large institutional buyers if the stock gets a foothold over $5.

As a trader Najarian wants positions with a defined risk. That means limiting your loss and understanding the risk. His idea for a Nokia trade is get long the stock around $4.50 with a $4.00 stop-loss. If the stock goes below $4 an 11% loss is realized.

On the other hand should Nokia get over $5 and find real buyers Najarian sees an acceleration to $8 or ever $10 as a possibility. That puts the high end of the trade at near 80%.

You can try anything you want as long as you have an exit plan. Najarian has defined his bullish play on Nokia. As is always the case, the market will be the judge of whether or not he's right.

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