By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) reported on Wednesday fourth-quarter earnings that topped expectations as increased 5G demand boosted chip sales.
Qualcomm shares gained 10% in after-hours trade following the report.
Qualcomm announced earnings per share of $1.45 on revenue of $6.50B. Analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated EPS of $1.17 on revenue of $5.9B. For the fourth quarter, the company had previously guided revenue in the range of $7.3 billion to $8.1 billion and non-GAAP diluted EPS between $1.05 and $1.25.
The company guided fiscal Q1 EPS in the range of $1.95 to $2.15 on revenue of between $7.8 to $8.6 billion.
Chip sales rose 13% to $162 million, coming in at the upper range of its previous guidance of between $145 million to $165 million.
Fourth-quarter QCT (Qualcomm CDMA Technologies) semiconductor business revenue rose 28% to $4.97 billion, beating the upper end of its forecast of $4.9 billion.
QTL (Qualcomm Technology Licensing) licensing business revenue of $1.51 billion also topped its estimates of between $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion.
"Our fiscal fourth quarter results demonstrate that our investments in 5G are coming to fruition and showing benefits in our licensing and product businesses," said Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm. "We concluded the year with exceptional fourth quarter results and are well positioned for growth in 2021 and beyond. As the pace of disruption in wireless technology accelerates, we will continue to drive growth and scale across our RF front-end, Automotive and IoT adjacencies."