Qualcomm slips past 1Q forecasts, sees slowing sales in 2Q

Jan. 2, 2002 4:43 p.m. PT

2 min read

Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) topped analysts' estimates by a penny a share in its first quarter Tuesday, but warned that its product shipments in the second quarter may be lower than expected.

In the quarter, Qualcomm earned $192 million, or 25 cents a share, on sales of $1.1 billion.

First Call consensus expected Qualcomm to earn 24 cents a share in the quarter.

Its shares closed up 8 15/16 to 149 ahead of the earnings report but fell more than $12 a share in after-hours trading.

Company officials said it expects additional non-recurring charges in the second quarter of fiscal 2000 related to the sale of its consumer products business. However, these charges are expected to be more than offset by gains on the sale of investments, the company said.

The $1.1 billion in sales marks a 19 percent improvement from the year-ago quarter when it earned 8 cents a share on sales of $941 million.

CEO Irwin Jacobs said Qualcomm's decision to sell off its phone business this quarter will help support continuing improvements in the company's financial performance, while allowing the company to increase resources devoted to wireless Internet access.

"We also executed our previously announced plan to reach an agreement to sell our phone business to a company that could grow the business and continue the expansion of CDMA worldwide," Irwin said in a prepared release.

Qualcomm said shipments of its phone chips in the second quarter may be lower than the first quarter due to seasonal factors, inventory balancing by customers due to continued shortages of other phone components, and transition from older to newer chips.

However, Qualcomm said it expects to meet the First Call consensus estimate of 25 cents a share in the second quarter and $1.02 a share in the fiscal year.

Qualcomm shares moved up to a split-adjusted 52-week high of 200 in December after trading at just 7 3/16 last January.

Fourteen of the 19 analysts tracking the stock maintain either a "buy" or "strong buy" recommendation.