Qualcomm (QCOM) Q3 2024 Earnings Report

Qualcomm reported fourth-quarter results on Wednesday that beat Wall Street's profit and revenue expectations, and the company forecast a strong December quarter.

Shares rose 10% in extended trading.

Here's how the company performed compared to Refinitiv's consensus expectations for the quarter ended September 29:

• Earnings per share: $2.69, adjusted $2.56 expected
• revenue: $10.24 billion versus expected $9.90 billion

Qualcomm expects revenue between $10.5 billion and $11.3 billion for the current quarter, with the midpoint of that range beating LSEG consensus expectations of $10.59 billion.

The company reported net income of $2.92 billion, or $2.59 per share, up significantly from $1.49 billion, or $1.23 per share, a year ago. Qualcomm reported total revenue of $33.19 billion in fiscal 2024, up 9% from 2023.

Qualcomm's successes have always been linked to the smartphone industry, where the company supplies a range of chips to mobile phone manufacturers, including system-on-a-chip processors, modems and antennas. The company makes the chip that is at the heart of most high-end Android devices and many low-end phones too. Qualcomm also sells modems and related chips Apple for its iPhones and said last year that its contract for 5G chips runs until 2026.

Qualcomm reported a 12% increase in mobile phone chip sales to $6.1 billion, in line with FactSet estimates. Qualcomm unveiled its high-end 2025 chip called Snapdragon 8 Elite in October.

Under CEO Cristiano Amon, the company has diversified away from being a smartphone provider and has introduced and invested heavily in the production of chips for PCs, cars and industrial machinery.

Qualcomm has also made efforts to distinguish itself as a leader in AI, developing smartphone chips with dedicated machine learning parts since 2017. But different NvidiaThe company doesn't make the kind of data center graphics processors used for large AI programs like OpenAI's ChatGPT.

The automotive business grew 86% annually to sales of $899 million. Qualcomm says it has billions of dollars in deals with automakers currently in the development pipeline, highlighting that this is its fifth consecutive quarter of growth.

The company's “Internet of Things” business includes both industrial-grade chips and chips Meta uses it in its Quest phones and Ray-Ban smart glasses. This also includes the new business that sells chips for running laptops Microsoft Windows. The division reported revenue of $1.68 billion, up 22% year-over-year.

Qualcomm's chip business, including its mobile phone, automotive and other chips, collectively reported as QCT, saw revenue rise 18% to a total of $7.37 billion in the quarter.

The company's profitable technology licensing business, QTL, reported revenue of $1.52 billion, up 21% from the same period last year.

Qualcomm said its board approved $15 billion in additional buybacks. In the fourth quarter, the company repurchased $1.3 billion in shares and paid $947 million in dividends.

REGARD: CNBC's full interview with Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon