Qualcomm Reports First Quarter Earnings, Beats Estimates For Revenue And Guidance

Qualcomm has released its earnings for its fiscal first quarter and the results surpassed the expectations of analysts for both its revenue and guidance. The chipmaker provided a strong outlook, surpassing estimates, for its fiscal second quarter.

The company’s stock plunged more than 8 percent briefly during extended trading before making it to a decrease of 2 percent. It was up 6.25 percent during trading hours on Wednesday, before it released its results. Its results were posted at the same time Meta (formerly Facebook) posted its results which caused huge sparks as Meta had rather disappointing results to show for its fourth quarter.

For the quarter ended December 26^th, Qualcomm reported earnings per share of $3.23, adjusted and was up 49 percent YoY. Analysts had their expectation for earnings per share of $3.01. Revenue was up 30 percent YoY at $10.7 billion beating the estimate of $10.42 billion that analysts had forecasted.

While analysts estimate $9.6 billion in sales for its imminent quarter, Qualcomm says its expectation lies between $10.2 billion and $11 billion.

Its chip business, QCT, was up 35 percent from the same quarter in the previous year and reported sales of $8.85 billion. Growth, however, slowed from the 63 percent it reported during the same quarter last year. The report shows that the demand for microchips is still on the roofs.

The company’s CEO Cristiano Amon did mention that the company’s supply was improving even with the ongoing global chip shortage. “In simple terms, we see supply improvements, and our forward guide contemplates the visibility we have in supply. We still have more demand than supply, and we would ship more if we could”, he said

Qualcomm warned that it hadn’t factored in gains from its QSI investment division into its GAAP earnings forecast for the second quarter because of market volatility. Qualcomm said that QSI contributed $0.10 to its GAAP earnings per share during the quarter.

During the quarter, Qualcomm repurchased $1.2 billion in shares and issued $765 million in dividends.

The company’s chip division which is broken into four categories all saw impressive growth and revenue of $5.98 billion. This was driven by a 42 percent increase in the sales of handset chips. The company also saw a 60 percent growth YoY for its snapdragon chipsets. These chipsets are very common in Android phones which are ubiquitous. “Android is a success story for us”, Qualcomm’s CEO said while on a call with analysts.

Qualcomm’s RF division which focuses on chips for wireless connectivity, grew 7 percent to $1.13 billion in the quarter and 76 percent in the fiscal year of 2021.

Its technology licensing division, QTL, grew 10 percent YoY and recorded $1.81 billion in revenue.