Ahead of the Bell: Credit Suisse cuts Nokia

A Credit Suisse analyst downgraded shares of Nokia Corp. late Thursday, predicting it will have trouble maintaining its share of the smartphone market.

Kulbinder Garcha lowered Nokia to "Neutral" from "Outperform" and slashed his price target nearly in half for Europe-traded shares of the Finland-based phone maker in note to investors.

Garcha predicted Nokia had captured 49.4 percent of the global market share for smart phones by 2007. But he called that kind of dominance "unsustainable in the near term," given growing competition from Apple, Research in Motion Ltd. and HTC Corp.

While Nokia appears to be improving its product portfolio, Garcha said, a "competitive" touch-screen smartphone would take Nokia one year to develop.

However, Garcha was still upbeat on Nokia's upcoming earnings. He said he still expects Nokia to beat Wall Street estimates when it reports second-quarter earnings. It is scheduled to do so July 17, according to the company Web site.

A Nokia representative could not immediately be reached for comment early Friday.

U.S.-traded shares of Nokia fell 26 cents to $24.80 in premarket trading Friday. On Thursday, shares lost $1.04, or 4 percent, to close $25.06.