Sell Qualcomm (QCOM)
You’ll pardon me, I hope, if I’m nervous heading into Qualcomm’s (QCOM) earnings announcement for the second quarter of fiscal 2010 on Wednesday, April 21. Last quarter Qualcomm shares dropped 14.3%–or $6.72 a share–on January 28, the day after the company released earnings for the first quarter of the 2010 fiscal year and announced guidance for future quarters. In its guidance Qualcomm executives predicted lower than expected revenue and earnings for the second quarter.
Since then the company has restored most of the decrease it predicted three months ago. But Qualcomm has a record of delivering earnings surprises—and the surprises aren’t always pleasant.
But that’s not the reason I’m selling these shares. Read more
Update Qualcomm (QCOM)
Qualcomm (QCOM) is doing all it can to support its stock price—but the second half still depends on getting margins higher.
On March 1 the company’s board of directors voted to increase the company’s quarterly dividend by 12% to 19 cents a share from the previous 17 cents a share. The new 76 cents a share annual rate is equal to a 2.03% yield on the noon price on March 2. (The increase is effective for dividends paid after March 28.)
The board also authorized a new $3 billion share buyback program. This replaces the company’s recently expired $2 billion program. (As is typical of most share buyback programs this one wound up buying back fewer shares—about $1.7 billion—than authorized.)
The stock has popped today on the news—up about 5% as of noon—since companies typically use dividend increases to signal their confidence in the company’s future. In this case I think investors are thinking that the company is saying that it believes that its call for a second half 2010 increase in average selling prices—which would bring higher margins—is accurate. Read more
Update Qualcomm (QCOM)
One chip in. One chip not quite in but closer. Between the two maybe this stock has finally achieved some upside momentum.
Two big announcements in the tech world with Qualcomm (QCOM) near the center of both. Read more
Apple’s iPhone to go to T-Mobile and not Verizon in 2010
When AT&T’s (T) exclusive deal expires in 2010, Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone is most likely to find a second home with T-Mobile and not Verizon (VRZN). That’s the conclusion of a note published by analyst Doug Reid of Thomas Weisel Partners and picked up and amplified by AppleInsider.
Here’s his logic. Read more
Update Qualcom QCOM: Only the momentum traders are disappointed
Qualcomm (QCOM) reported better results than Wall Street expected after the market close on July 22. The company’s earnings for its fiscal third quarter came in 2 cents a share above projections.
The stock retreated in trading on July 23, however, because momentum traders who had pushed the stock up in the days before the report didn’t raise guidance for the fourth quarter. With all the good news in the stock for the moment, they sold.
If you’ve got a slightly longer holding period than these traders, though, there was plenty in the report and conference call to keep you in the stock Read more
