Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon responds to a query throughout a keynote dialog at CES 2024, an annual client electronics commerce present, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 10, 2024.
Steve Marcus | Reuters
Qualcomm reported fiscal first-quarter outcomes on Wednesday that topped analysts’ estimates as gross sales of handset chips jumped 16% from a 12 months earlier. Qualcomm shares fell greater than 1% in prolonged buying and selling.
Here is how the chipmaker did for the quarter ending Dec. 24, per consensus expectations from LSEG, previously often known as Refinitiv:
- Earnings per share: $2.75 adjusted vs. $2.37 anticipated
- Income: $9.92 billion adjusted vs. $9.51 billion anticipated
For the present quarter, Qualcomm mentioned it expects adjusted earnings of between $1.73 and $1.93 per share on income of $8.9 billion to $9.7 billion. Consensus expectations, in accordance with LSEG, have been for earnings of $2.25 per share on $9.3 billion of income.
Internet revenue rose 24% in the course of the quarter to $2.77 billion, or $2.48 per share, from $2.24 billion, or $1.98 per share, a 12 months in the past.
Qualcomm is greatest identified for making smartphone chips — each the modems that join them to mobile networks, in addition to the processors on the coronary heart of high-end Android gadgets.
Below CEO Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm has been working to use its chip know-how to markets past smartphones, together with PCs, vehicles and digital actuality headsets. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless a serious smartphone provider as the worldwide market has slumped over the previous two years.
Qualcomm mentioned it shipped $6.69 billion in handset chips in the course of the December quarter, up 16% 12 months over 12 months, a optimistic signal for the smartphone market after two years of declines. Qualcomm mentioned it anticipated world handset gross sales could be flat 12 months over 12 months.
“We see the Android market stabilizing after we have been by means of 2023,” Amon mentioned. “That was a 12 months of correction.”
Notably, Samsung’s high-end Galaxy telephones launched in January use Qualcomm processors, and the corporate expects that enterprise to proceed for a number of years underneath a brand new deal, foreclosing the chance that the second-largest smartphone maker would eschew Qualcomm for its personal chips.
Qualcomm’s Web of Issues enterprise contains the chips Meta makes use of in its digital actuality headsets. That phase noticed gross sales slide 32% to $1.13 billion.
Qualcomm is betting closely on promoting chips to automakers and automobile suppliers, however it’s a course of that can take years as automobile elements have an extended “qualification” cycle on account of laws and the wants of the trade. Qualcomm’s nascent automotive enterprise, a part of QCT, reported $589 million in gross sales, up 31% on an annual foundation.
QCT, the corporate’s chip gross sales enterprise that features automotive, Web of Issues and handsets, totaled $8.42 billion in income in the course of the quarter, up 7% on an annual foundation.
The corporate’s worthwhile licensing enterprise, QTL, reported $1.46 billion in income, a 4% annual decline. Amon advised analysts on a name that Apple had agreed to increase its patent licensing settlement by means of March 2027.
Qualcomm mentioned it spent $800 million in share repurchases and $900 million on dividends in the course of the quarter.
