Qualcomm (QCOM) Q1 2026 earnings

Qualcomm It reported fiscal first-quarter earnings on Wednesday that beat expectations, but the company’s forecast fell short due to a global memory shortage. Shares fell after the announcement.

Qualcomm shares fell in extended trading.

Here’s how the chipmaker performed against LSEG consensus estimates:

• EPS: Adjusted $3.50 vs. $3.41 expected
• Revenues: 12.25 billion dollars compared to the expectation of 12.21 billion dollars

Qualcomm said it expects adjusted earnings per share this quarter to be between $2.45 and $2.65, with revenue between $10.2 billion and $11 billion. Analysts surveyed by LSEG expected sales of $11.11 billion and earnings of $2.89 per share.

Qualcomm executives said in an interview that the lack of guidance is directly related to the global memory shortage. Large orders for data center memory are eating into memory manufacturing capacity for smartphones and other devices.

By purchasing the company’s own memory and pairing it with Qualcomm’s processors and modems, smartphone customers closely monitor their purchases and inventory and adjust them based on memory availability.

Qualcomm finance chief Akash Palkhiwala said the difference between consensus estimates and guidance was due to a memory issue.

“We’re starting to see that memory will determine the size of the mobile market,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said in an interview.

Amon added that phone demand is still high and the smartphone market is going through an upgrade cycle, but Qualcomm expects problems with smartphone supply.

He added that the company doesn’t know whether smartphone makers will raise prices, but Amon said he expects Qualcomm’s customers to focus on higher-end devices that can better absorb increases in memory prices than budget phones.

“We see this as an industry issue that affects everything in consumer electronics,” Amon said.

For the quarter, Qualcomm reported phone sales of $7.82 billion, up 3% year over year. Qualcomm’s overall revenue increased 5% in the quarter.

The company’s small businesses grew faster during the quarter.

The company’s internet of things group offers both chips for industrial use and Meta Sales of Ray-Ban smart glasses increased 9% in the quarter to $1.69 billion. And Qualcomm’s growing automotive and robotics business, which supplies chips to automakers including Toyota, saw a 15% increase for the division to $1.1 billion.

Net income for the quarter ended December decreased slightly to $3 billion, or $2.78 per diluted share, compared to $2.18 billion, or $2.83 per diluted share, in the same period a year ago.

In addition to selling chips, Qualcomm also licenses intellectual property rights for technologies such as 5G to other hardware companies. This is reported as QTL revenues, which are significantly more profitable than hardware sales. Qualcomm reported QTL revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter.

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