Qualcomm’s Prospects Better Than Quarterly Results

In its outlook for its third quarter, Qualcomm guided revenues in a range of $6.2 billion to $6.8 billion and adjusted EPS in a range of $1.15 to $1.25. Chip sales are forecast to rise 15% to 24%. Third-quarter sales of all third-party devices using Qualcomm chips are forecast at $56 billion to $62 billion, a range of -1% to +10% compared with last year’s total of about $56.5 billion.

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Investors continued to be cautious Thursday morning, with more selling than buying on relatively heavy volume of 6.6 million shares traded in the first half-hour, compared with a daily average of around 10.1 million shares.

Analysts’ calls on Qualcomm this morning were as follows: Evercore raised its target to $88, Brean raised its target to $89 and the stock was even included in an RBC list of growing high-yield dividends.

Where investors see a selling opportunity, analysts are seeing a chance to pick up Qualcomm stock at a discount. Analysts at Deutsche Bank, for example, kept its Buy rating on the stock with a price target of $86.

Qualcomm’s undeniable strength in mobile chipsets is expected to continue as more 4G/LTE devices are made and sold as the advanced network is built out in China.

Shares of Qualcomm traded down about 4.1% Thursday morning, at $77.43 in a 52-week range of $59.02 to $81.66.