Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon answers a question during a keynote speech at CES 2024, the annual consumer electronics trade show, on January 10, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Steve Marcus | Reuters
Qualcomm report Second quarter profit Wednesday’s data beat Wall Street expectations and provided strong guidance for the current quarter.
Shares rose about 3% in after-hours trading.
Here’s how it compares to LSEG’s consensus forecast for the quarter ending in March:
- Earnings per share: Adjusted $2.44, expected $2.32
- income: Adjusted US$9.39 billion, expected US$9.34 billion
Net profit for the quarter was US$2.33 billion, or US$2.06 per share, compared with US$1.7 billion, or US$1.52 per share, in the same period last year.
Qualcomm said sales for the quarter would be between $8.8 billion and $9.6 billion, above Wall Street expectations of $9.05 billion. Analysts expected earnings guidance of $2.17 per share, while the company forecast $2.15 to $2.35.
Qualcomm’s most important business is its mobile phone business. The company sells processors, modems and other parts for smartphones — mostly Android devices, but also some modem parts for iPhones.
Mobile phone sales rose 1% year-over-year to $6.18 billion, suggesting the smartphone market may be recovering after a few years of post-COVID-19 slump. Qualcomm cited strong demand for “high-end” smartphones that require the most advanced chips, especially in China.
Qualcomm calls phones using its best chips “artificial intelligence smartphones,” citing features like generating email completion, instant translation and virtual assistants that use the chip’s dedicated “NPU” artificial intelligence part. One of the phones is the Galaxy S24 Ultra, launched by Samsung earlier this year.
The company’s automotive business, which sells chips to automakers, is also showing signs of growth, growing at an annual rate of 35% to $603 million. The company’s so-called “Internet of Things” business, which consists of low-cost chips, fell 11% year over year to $1.24 billion.
The three business lines are collectively known as QCT, and the company’s chip business sales increased 1% year-on-year to $8.03 billion.Qualcomm also emphasized
The company’s licensing business, QTL, which charges companies looking to integrate 5G or cellular technology into their products, grew 2% annually to $1.32 billion.
Qualcomm said it paid $895 million in dividends and repurchased $731 million in stock during the quarter. Qualcomm raised its quarterly dividend to 85 cents from the previous 80 cents.
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