QCOM ($25-$27)PE=29 Cap $22Bil third-quarter profit beats estimate
By Yukari Iwatani
(Adds CFO interview, byline, updates stock price, previous SAN DIEGO)
CHICAGO, July 25 (Reuters) - Wireless technology company Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq:QCOM - News) on Thursday reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that beat its estimates, helped by demand for its advanced wireless technology that lets wireless phone users surf the Web, swap pictures and download music.
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Qualcomm also said it expected revenue and earnings for the full year to be at the high end of its previous guidance.
Qualcomm stock jumped 6.8 percent to $27.40 in after-hours trading on Instinet from its close of $25.65 on the Nasdaq, where it had lost $3.45, or nearly 12 percent, in regular trading.
"Most people on the Street were looking for a good June quarter. They provided it," said Matthew Hoffman, analyst with SoundView Technology. "The outlook is positive but there's going to be concerns over cash flow in the quarter."
On a pro forma basis, excluding investments and amortization of goodwill, the company posted a profit of 24 cents per share compared with 20 cents a year ago. Qualcomm previously said it expected to meet or beat the high end of its target range of 21 cents to 23 cents.
San Diego-based Qualcomm reported a net loss of $14 million or 2 cents a share compared to a loss of 26 cents a share a year earlier. It blamed the loss on $194 million in charges related to its investment in wireless telephone company Leap Wireless Inc. (NasdaqNM:LWIN - News)
Pro forma revenue in the quarter rose 10 percent to $721 million, beating its own expectation. This was driven by an increase in demand for all of its products in all major geographic regions except for Latin America, the company said.
CHIPS STRONGER THAN EXPECTED
"I don't think the analysts were expecting the kinds of (chip) shipments that we realized in the June quarter," Chief Financial Officer William Keitel told Reuters.
Qualcomm owns most of the patents to Code Division Multiple Access, the dominant wireless technology standard used in the United States and the second most commonly used technology in the world. It licenses its technology and sells CDMA chips for phones and other wireless devices.
The company shipped a little over 16 million chips in the quarter, Keitel said, the majority of which were for new, high-speed, high-capacity networks.
It said it was particularly helped by the rapid worldwide growth of CDMA2000 1X, its advanced technology that gives users access to high-speed wireless Internet connections via cell phones. It also was helped by its technology for downloading applications, known as BREW, or Binary Runtime Environment, and gpsOne position-location technology.
Qualcomm, like other telecommunications firms, had been suffering from the sluggish economy and lower industry spending. The stock has fallen almost 50 percent so far this year as investors worried about weak chip demand.
The company said it expects to post pro forma earnings of 93 cents to 94 cents for the full fiscal year ending in September, compared with previous expectations of 90 cents to 95 cents.
It said revenue for the year would increase 7 percent to 8 percent over fiscal 2001. Its previous guidance called for a 4 percent to 8 percent increase.
Qualcomm said it expected fiscal fourth-quarter pro forma earnings of 26 cents to 27 cents with revenue increasing 10 percent to 13 percent over third-quarter levels.
Keitel also said the company was not necessarily troubled by the adoption rate for China Unicom's new CDMA network. Analysts have said adoption there has been slower than expected and have raised concerns about the effect of that on Qualcomm, which sees China as an important market.
He said the company has always had a forecast for 3 million to 4 million subscribers for Unicom's network this calendar year, a range they expect it to achieve from current subscriber levels of about 1.4 million. |
