This is fine, everything’s fine, CEO assures analysts on call. Look, we made $1bn in profit!
Despite revealing licensing and chip sales fell by 20 per cent in its latest quarter, shares in Qualcomm managed to hold steady in after-hours trading on Wednesday. They were up a tad over two per cent to $51.40 apiece following a bold outlook for the year.
„We are pleased to announce a good first quarter, particularly in the face of the headwinds facing the industry,“ CEO Steve Mollenkopf told analysts in a conference call after announcing the figures. „Several positive trends allow us to be optimistic for a strong second quarter performance.“
Here are the key takeaways from Qualcomm’s Q1 fiscal 2019 aka the three months to December 30,2018:
Revenue fell to $4.8bn, down one fifth from $6bn this time last year, as the smartphone chip designer deals with softening demand, in the phone sector particularly. This sales total is about $80m below Wall St’s expectations, so analysts were more or less braced for a 20-per-cent plunge in revenue.
Net income was, on the other hand, $1.1bn, up from a $500m loss in Q4 fiscal 2018, and a $6bn loss this time last year, although that hit was due to a tax charge related to bringing foreign earnings back to the US and its bumper antitrust fine in Europe. Operating income for the latest quarter was $700m versus a big fat zero in the year-ago period.
