FX168 Financial News (North America) - Qualcomm's fourth-quarter financial report released on Wednesday, November 6th exceeded Wall Street expectations, with earnings and revenue outperforming analyst estimates, exciting the market.

The company remains optimistic about the strong performance in the December quarter. After the financial report was released, its stock price rose by 10% in after-hours trading, eventually settling at around a 6% increase.

(Source: Google)

Qualcomm's quarterly financial data ending on September 29 shows earnings per share of $2.69, higher than the adjusted Refinitiv expectation of $2.56; revenue of $10.24 billion, surpassing the expected $9.9 billion.

Looking ahead, Qualcomm expects revenue for this quarter to be between $10.5 billion and $11.3 billion, in line with or exceeding market expectations of $10.59 billion.

In this quarter, Qualcomm's net income was $2.92 billion, or $2.59 per share, a significant increase from the $1.49 billion ($1.23 per share) in the same period last year. The company's total revenue for the 2024 fiscal year reached $33.19 billion, a 9% year-on-year growth.

Qualcomm's revenue is closely related to the smart phone industry, providing a variety of products including system-level chips, modems, and antennas. Its chips are widely used in high-end Android devices and budget phones, and it supplies 5G modems to Apple's iPhones.

Last year, Qualcomm announced an extension of its 5G chip supply agreement with Apple until 2026. This quarter, Qualcomm's mobile chip business revenue grew by 12% to $6.1 billion, in line with FactSet estimates.

In October, the company also launched the flagship chip 'Snapdragon 8 Elite' for 2025.

The Chief Financial Officer of the company, Akash Palkhiwala, stated in an analyst conference call: 'Android revenue in the mobile field grew by over 20% year-on-year.'

Under the leadership of CEO Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm is committed to transformation, evolving from a single smartphone chip supplier to a comprehensive provider covering personal computers, autos, and industrial equipment chips.

Amon stated: 'We will continue to drive Qualcomm's transformation from a wireless communications company to a connected computing company in the AI era.'

Additionally, Qualcomm is making efforts to establish a leading position in the field of artificial intelligence, continuously developing mobile chips with machine learning capabilities since 2017. However, unlike Nvidia, Qualcomm does not produce datacenter GPUs for large-scale AI applications.

The auto business also performed well, with an annual growth rate of 86% and sales reaching $0.899 billion.

Qualcomm stated that the transaction amounts with auto manufacturers have reached billions of dollars, achieving growth for five consecutive quarters, and the projected year-on-year sales growth rate for the auto business this quarter is expected to reach 50%.

Qualcomm's IoT business covers industrial chips, Meta Quest mobile chips, and Ray-Ban smart glasses chips, as well as sales of Microsoft Windows laptop chips, with department revenue reaching $1.68 billion, a 22% year-on-year increase.

Qualcomm's core chip division (QCT), including mobile, automotive, and IoT chips, saw an 18% increase in sales this quarter, reaching $7.37 billion. The revenue of its technology licensing division (QTL) was $1.52 billion, a 21% year-on-year increase.

The board of directors has approved an additional repurchase of $15 billion in stocks. This quarter, Qualcomm repurchased $1.3 billion in stocks and distributed $0.947 billion in dividends to further reward shareholders.