Qualcomm rises on high hopes for quarterly outlook
Tue Jan 24, 2006 12:56 PM ET
NEW YORK, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The shares of mobile chip and technology license firm Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM.O: Quote, Profile, Research) rose about 2 percent on Tuesday a day ahead of its earnings report, on investor expectations for a strong current quarter outlook.
ThinkEquity analyst Mike Burton said investors were cheered by strong customer growth at the No. 2 U.S. provider Verizon Wireless, which uses Qualcomm technology and by news from rival chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) .
"The indication on demand is that demand is pretty solid," said Burton, who also cited expectations for first quarter growth at Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) , a mobile phone maker that uses Qualcomm chips.
Texas Instruments said late on Monday it had difficulty meeting strong demand in the fourth quarter, due to late delivery of manufacturing equipment and it forecast first quarter growth in line with expectations.
Qualcomm dominates the market for chips in phones based on CDMA, a wireless technology popular in the United States and other parts of the world. It plans to report its fiscal first quarter earnings Wednesday afternoon.
Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L: Quote, Profile, Research) , said on Tuesday it added 2 million subscribers in the fourth quarter.
Qualcomm shares were up 90 cents at $47.82 in early afternoon trading on Nasdaq.
On average analysts expect it to post earnings of 38 cents per share on revenue of $1.76 billion, according to Reuters Estimates. Analysts expect fiscal second quarter earnings of 36 cents per share on revenue of $1.73 billion. |
