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 yr earlier. Qualcomm shares fell greater than 1% in prolonged buying and selling.
This is how the chipmaker did for the quarter ending Dec. 24, per consensus expectations from LSEG, previously generally 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 stated 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 keeping with LSEG, had 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 yr in the past.
Qualcomm is greatest recognized 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.
Underneath CEO Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm has been working to use its chip expertise to markets past smartphones, together with PCs, automobiles and digital actuality headsets. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless a serious smartphone provider as the worldwide market has slumped over the previous two years.
Qualcomm stated it shipped $6.69 billion in handset chips in the course of the December quarter, up 16% yr over yr, a constructive signal for the smartphone market after two years of declines. Qualcomm stated it anticipated world handset gross sales can be flat yr over yr.
“We see the Android market stabilizing after we have been by 2023,” Amon stated. “That was a yr 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 likelihood 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 section 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 components have a protracted “qualification” cycle as a consequence of laws and the wants of the business. 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 March 2027.
Qualcomm stated it spent $800 million in share repurchases and $900 million on dividends in the course of the quarter.
