One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$193.06 our estimate vs market $184.87
Wall Street consensus: $194.13 (0.6% higher than our fair-value estimate)
4% below our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
QUALCOMM Incorporated
QCOM · NMS · Technology · Semiconductors
Current price
$184.87
52-week range
$121.99 - $259.92
Market cap
$197.45B
Balance sheet
Watch
18.67x Strong cushion
Net debt $6.97B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
3 Risks
3 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Returns 33.8% on equity, ahead of 50% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 35.9% to 18.5% over 3 years.
- Risk Stock trades 4.8% above its 5-year average P/E.
What this company does
QUALCOMM Incorporated
Qualcomm creates the essential technology and computer chips that allow devices like smartphones and cars to connect to wireless networks such as 5G. The company makes money in two main ways: selling its chips directly to device makers and charging licensing fees (payments for permission to use its inventions) to nearly every company that builds a wireless product. This central role in communication technology means its business is tied to the global demand for connected devices.
How the company got here
Founded in 1985, Qualcomm started by providing satellite communication systems for trucking companies to track their vehicles. The profits from this business funded research into a new wireless technology called CDMA. This technology became the foundation for 3G mobile networks, and the company's focus shifted to developing the core technologies and chips that power mobile phones. Over the years, it sold off its phone and base station manufacturing businesses to concentrate on designing chips and licensing its technology to other companies.
What it actually does
Qualcomm is a technology company that designs the 'brains' inside many popular electronic devices, especially smartphones. You'll find their Snapdragon processors in a large number of Android phones, which help run everything from the operating system to games and cameras. They also create the modem chips that connect your phone to 5G and Wi-Fi networks. Instead of manufacturing the chips themselves, Qualcomm designs them and then licenses its technology to other companies, who then build the final products.
Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT)
This is Qualcomm's largest business segment, making up the vast majority of its revenue. It designs and sells the actual computer chips (semiconductors) and software that go into a wide range of devices. The most well-known products from this segment are the Snapdragon processors that power many of the world's smartphones. This segment also creates chips for cars, helping to run their digital dashboards and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), as well as for a growing number of 'Internet of Things' (IoT) devices like smartwatches and virtual reality headsets.
Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL)
This part of the company doesn't sell physical products, but instead makes money by licensing its intellectual property (a company's collection of patents, trademarks, and copyrights). Because Qualcomm invented many of the foundational technologies used in mobile communication like 3G, 4G, and 5G, other companies that make smartphones and other wireless devices pay Qualcomm a fee, known as a royalty, to use these patented technologies. This is a very profitable part of the business, even though it brings in less revenue than the chip-making segment.
Qualcomm Strategic Initiatives (QSI)
This is the smallest segment of Qualcomm, which acts like an investment arm. It invests in early-stage companies that are working on new technologies in areas that are important to Qualcomm's future, such as 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), automotive technology, and the Internet of Things. The goal of these investments is to help promote the adoption of Qualcomm's technologies and to support the development of new products and services that will use them. This segment also works with U.S. government agencies on various technology projects.
What management is betting on now
Qualcomm is focused on diversifying its business beyond just smartphones to reduce its reliance on that market. A major push is into the automotive industry, providing the chips for in-car infotainment systems and self-driving features. The company is also heavily investing in chips for the data center and artificial intelligence (AI) markets, aiming to compete with other major chip designers in powering cloud computing and AI applications. Another key area of growth is the Internet of Things (IoT), which includes everything from smart home devices to industrial robotics.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q4
$2.39B
FY2025 Q1
$4.31B
FY2025 Q2
$2.34B
FY2025 Q3
$2.58B
FY2025 Q4
$3.59B
FY2026 Q1
$4.42B
FY2026 Q2
$1.92B
FY2026 Q3
$495.00M
Revenue
$9.95B
Net income
$2.00B
Diluted EPS
1.87
Operating cash flow
$991.00M
Free cash flow
$495.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$10.60B
Net income
$7.37B
Diluted EPS
6.88
Operating cash flow
$2.45B
Free cash flow
$1.92B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$12.25B
Net income
$3.00B
Diluted EPS
2.78
Operating cash flow
$4.96B
Free cash flow
$4.42B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$11.27B
Net income
$-3.12B
Diluted EPS
-2.77
Operating cash flow
$4.00B
Free cash flow
$3.59B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$10.37B
Net income
$2.67B
Diluted EPS
2.43
Operating cash flow
$2.88B
Free cash flow
$2.58B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$10.98B
Net income
$2.81B
Diluted EPS
2.52
Operating cash flow
$2.55B
Free cash flow
$2.34B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$11.67B
Net income
$3.18B
Diluted EPS
2.83
Operating cash flow
$4.59B
Free cash flow
$4.31B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$10.24B
Net income
$2.92B
Diluted EPS
2.57
Operating cash flow
$2.65B
Free cash flow
$2.39B
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $193.06 vs current price $184.87
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $194.13 (0.6% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $193.06 a share — about 4.4% away from today's price of $184.87, so the stock currently looks fairly priced.
Is it drowning in debt?
Watch
Net debt $7.0B. Interest coverage 18.7x.
Net debt
$6.97B
Interest coverage
18.67x
QUALCOMM Incorporated's profit covers its interest bill about 18.7 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Watch
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
QCOM
BASELINE
QUALCOMM Incorporated
Total debt $15.27B Interest coverage 18.67x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $59.42B Interest coverage 8.12x -56% vs QCOM Carries about 2.3x less debt cushion than QCOM.
Total debt $14.05B Interest coverage 11.31x -39% vs QCOM Carries about 1.7x less debt cushion than QCOM.
Total debt $50.54B Interest coverage -0.02x -100% vs QCOM This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with QCOM.
Total debt $4.28B Interest coverage 28.20x +51% vs QCOM Carries about 1.5x more debt cushion than QCOM.
Total debt $10.98B Interest coverage 6.51x -65% vs QCOM Carries about 2.9x less debt cushion than QCOM.
What you should know
The case for and against QCOM
3 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Returns 33.8% on equity, ahead of 50% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
-
Trades at 20.8x P/E vs peer median 43.3x (52.0% cheaper).
Risks
-
Operating margin compressed from 35.9% to 18.5% over 3 years.
-
Stock trades 4.8% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Insider ownership is only 0.1% (peer median: 0.4%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
20.80x
Forward P/E
18.12x
P/B
7.07x
P/S
4.48x
EV/EBITDA
16.76x
PEG ratio
0.81x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
54.2%
Operating margin
18.5%
Net margin
21.0%
ROE
33.8%
ROA
11.6%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.55x
Current ratio
2.02x
Quick ratio
1.14x
Total debt
$15.27B
Total cash
$8.30B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$44.07B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
7.2%
EPS TTM
8.89
EPS 5Y CAGR
-23.9%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$12.40B
Free CF TTM
$12.82B
FCF margin
29.1%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
2.0%
Payout ratio
41.0%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-03