Cristiano Amon, president of Qualcomm and Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, responds to a question during a panel discussion on 5G wireless broadband technology during the 2018 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 10, 2018.
Steve Marcus | Reuters
Qualcomm stock rose more than 6% at one point in extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that exceeded analyst expectations.
Qualcomm’s revenue also beat Wall Street expectations despite a global chip shortage, driven by a 56% year-over-year boost in smartphone chip sales.
Here’s how Qualcomm did versus Refinitiv consensus expectations:
- EPS: $2.55, adjusted, vs. $2.26 expected, up 76% year-over-year.
- Revenue: $9.3 billion, adjusted, vs. $8.86 billion expected, up 43% year-over-year.
Qualcomm said it expected between $10 billion and $10.8 billion in sales in the current quarter, higher than the $9.68 billion expected by analysts.
QCT, Qualcomm’s chip business, reported $7.7 billion in revenue, up 56% year-over-year. The company attributed the growth to strong demand for chips for smartphones and handsets.
Qualcomm’s IoT business, which produces low-power chips to connect other devices to the internet, and is part of QCT, grew 66% to $1.5 billion. RF front-end chips, which are required to connect to 5G networks, grew 45% to $1.24 billion.
Qualcomm’s handset business was the second strongest growing product category in the quarter ending in December, with $4.69 billion in sales. Qualcomm expects to provide chips for as many as 550 million 5G smartphones in 2022, a slight downward revision from its previous prediction.
Qualcomm’s automotive business remains the company’s smallest product category for chips. It grew 44% to $270 million, although the company announced several partnerships with automakers such as GM during the quarter.
The growth in Qualcomm’s chip division comes during a period of supply issues for many semiconductors needed to build computers and other devices. It shows Qualcomm has weathered the global shortage which has hurt companies like Intel, AMD, and Apple, and that its strategy to use multiple chip factories, or foundries, has resulted in a stronger pipeline of chip supply.
QTL, the company’s profitable technology licensing division, was only up 3% on an annual basis to $1.55 billion in sales.
Qualcomm said it repurchased $1.54 billion in its own shares during the quarter, and paid $768 million in dividends.
