Late last week, Jeff Kvall of Barclay’s Capital cut his rating of Nokia (NOK) from Overweight to Equal Weight and lowered his price target to $4 per share. Similarly, analysts at Zacks downgraded the stock to Underperform, stating their belief that the company will face serious margin pressure in a tough industry that is dominated by rivals Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG). They called their view of the recent alliance between Nokia and Microsoft (MSFT) “skeptical” as to the potential for success. The downgrades seem like simply the latest in a series of negatives for a company that has been hit by a shift away from its core business in cheap phones by consumers, a significant software glitch on the tails of its most recent release in the smartphone space, and a generally negative view by investors. To put the case in the simplest of terms: They are all wrong.

If one looks simply at Nokia as he or she would any other company, the analysts may be able to make a case for their positions; it is important to remember that they are paid to have an opinion of a given stock within a specific perspective. If one considers the stock through the lens of these analysts, one sees a company that has partnered with one of the world’s declining behemoths, Microsoft, in an attempt to compete with arguably the two most powerful companies on the planet. To continue reading, click here.