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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (55388)	12/21/1999 9:52:00 AM
From: MileHigh	Respond to of 152472

It's like coining money! LOL!! MileHigh

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (55388)	12/21/1999 9:52:00 AM
From: slacker711	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

From the San Diego Tribune....I dont think anyone can ever accuse Mark Roberts (First Union) of not being bullish <g>. Qualcomm splits its shares 4-for-1 Company's stock value has never been so high By Mike Drummond STAFF WRITER December 21, 1999 Qualcomm shareholders approved the company's first 4-for-1 stock split yesterday, as officials issued 3 billion common shares to seed the market with certificates now worth more than their weight in gold. Wall Street, which has rewarded the company with ever-rising stock valuation all year, disregarded the potential dilution effect of having so many shares outstanding. Instead, investors showed their pleasure as the telecom closed yesterday at $466.811/4, another all-time record. By month's end, the company will mail stock certificates representing three additional shares for each share owned to all stockholders of record at the close of business yesterday. The company, which began trading on the Nasdaq stock market in December 1991, has initiated three stock splits. At no time in the company's history, however, has its stock value approached current levels. Even in an era of profitless Internet companies with multi-billion dollar market valuations, Qualcomm's performance is turning heads. "Is it over-valued?" avers one analyst who requested anonymity. "It's gotten to that point." Growing wireless market Still, unlike many public Internet companies, Qualcomm actually shows revenues and reports profits. Plus, its technology is and will continue to be in high demand. Led by the strong global demand for mobile communications, the number of cellular and PCS subscribers is forecast to reach 1.3 billion in 2004, according to Strategies Unlimited, a Silicon Valley research firm. Annual handset demand is projected to grow from 240 million units in 1999 to 600 million in 2004. Given the hunger for wireless phones and the expectations that people will yearn for wireless access to the Internet, some say Qualcomm's stock is a bargain even as it approaches $500 a share. Even once-skeptical observers note that Qualcomm's code division multiple access or CDMA wireless technology is better for voice and data delivery than the two other, older wireless technologies in use today -- global system for mobile communications or GSM, and time division multiple access or TDMA. Huge CDMA potential Some envision the day when nearly all cell phones will be using some type of CDMA technology. "There is the very real possibility . . . where Qualcomm will take a royalty (payment) on nearly every piece of wireless equipment sold in the world," says Mark Roberts of First Union Securities. He and others also say that if China adopts a nationwide rollout of CDMA, Qualcomm's stock would still be undervalued, even though the shares have risen some 1,700 percent this year. "China has the potential to be a huge opportunity for Qualcomm," Roberts says. "If we knew for sure there was going to be nationwide rollout of CDMA in China, you could double subscriber rate for CDMA. Arguably, everybody's estimates could be low by a factor of two at least." Meanwhile, investors and some 2,500 employees at Qualcomm and Qualcomm Personal Electronics are waiting for the company to announce a buyer of its phone-making division. That announcement might come this week or after Jan. 1, some predict. Next week is probably out because many in the investment community will be on vacation between Christmas and New Year's, which would diminish the transaction's visibility and expected stock boost. That stock boost would get an even bigger lift if Motorola or Nokia -- a rumored front-runner -- buy Qualcomm's handset business, says Brian Modoff, an analyst with BT Alex. Brown. Nokia and Motorola are the world's No. 1 and No. 2 phone makers, in that order. And they make their own chipsets -- the semiconductor or brains inside mobile phones. If Qualcomm sells the business to either, and constructs the deal to supply the chips for those phones, it could entrench its CDMA market share, which today hovers above 90 percent. "If it's not these two," Modoff cautions, "Qualcomm's (chipset) market share could drop below 50 percent. These two companies typically gain 20 percent of any market they target." To be sure, any number of pitfalls could hit Qualcomm and its mesmerizing stock performance, from technological glitches to global economic swoons. "There's a bubble that will burst sooner or later," SG Cowen analyst Wojtek Uzdelewicz says of the raging bull market. He notes, however, that investors enjoy Qualcomm's position in relation to the future of wireless technology. "People are looking at comparisons, not the company's cash flow or anything like that," he adds. "Qualcomm from this perspective could be a $600 stock, $700 -- you pick the number."