QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM) Shares Up 2.6% – Here’s What Happened

QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM)’s stock price shot up 2.6% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $175.09 and last traded at $175.07. 7,604,308 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 13% from the average session volume of 8,774,475 shares. The stock had previously closed at $170.70.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

QCOM has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of QUALCOMM from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of QUALCOMM in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Arete Research set a $200.00 price objective on QUALCOMM in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. Arete upgraded QUALCOMM from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of QUALCOMM from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $190.38.

QUALCOMM Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $187.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $169.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $161.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.82.

QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The wireless technology company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.87 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $11.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.74 billion. QUALCOMM had a return on equity of 43.22% and a net margin of 12.51%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. QUALCOMM has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 3.300-3.500 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that QUALCOMM Incorporated will post 9.39 EPS for the current year.

QUALCOMM Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.89 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $3.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. QUALCOMM’s payout ratio is currently 72.80%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Cristiano R. Amon sold 150,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.56, for a total value of $24,834,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 149,304 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,718,770.24. This trade represents a 50.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Patricia Y. Grech sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total value of $34,510.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 164,661 shares of company stock valued at $27,292,820. Company insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On QUALCOMM

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its stake in shares of QUALCOMM by 656,661.0% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 58,773,542 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock valued at $9,360,274,000 after acquiring an additional 58,764,593 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in QUALCOMM in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,713,603,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in QUALCOMM by 141.8% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,437,240 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock valued at $2,069,059,000 after purchasing an additional 7,292,783 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of QUALCOMM during the 1st quarter worth approximately $529,713,000. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in shares of QUALCOMM by 38.2% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 11,533,094 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock worth $1,866,451,000 after purchasing an additional 3,186,524 shares during the period. 74.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

QUALCOMM Company Profile

QUALCOMM Incorporated engages in the development and commercialization of foundational technologies for the wireless industry worldwide. It operates through three segments: Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT); Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL); and Qualcomm Strategic Initiatives (QSI). The QCT segment develops and supplies integrated circuits and system software based on 3G/4G/5G and other technologies for use in wireless voice and data communications, networking, computing, multimedia, and position location products.