Qualcomm Falls on Concern 4th Qtr May Disappoint
San Diego, Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of Qualcomm Inc., the best-performing stock this year on the Standard & Poor's 500
Index, fell as much as 12 percent on concern that fiscal fourth- quarter profit won't top forecasts as widely as in past quarters.
The developer of the world's second-most popular cellular- phone technology tumbled 17 1/16 to 175 1/8 in early afternoon
trading after touching 170. The company lost $3.56 billion in market value in the biggest drop since April 19.
Everen Securities Inc. analyst Mark Roberts, who met with management yesterday, said in a report that falling prices and a parts
shortage may prevent Qualcomm from beating forecasts as much as in the past. The drop in cell-phone prices has accelerated to
25 percent to 30 percent from 15 percent to 20 percent during the past few quarters, Roberts wrote.
''Although the company has substantially beat estimates the last couple quarters, we doubt the company has the ability to exceed
fourth-quarter expectations to that same extent,'' Roberts wrote.
Qualcomm officials weren't immediately available to comment on the share decline or the meeting with Roberts at the San Diego
company's headquarters.
Roberts expects fourth-quarter earnings of 88 cents a share. Analysts polled by First Call expect 87 cents for the quarter that ends
this month.
In the third quarter, profit rose to $134.9 million, or 75 cents a share, including the sale of a cellular-network division, from $24.7
million, or 17 cents, a year earlier. That beat the 63- cent average estimate of analysts polled by First Call Corp. |
