Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM)
Technology · NASDAQ · US
Fundamentals
Valuation and ratings
Qualcomm Inc. trades at $170.61, close to the $190.00 our discounted cash flow model puts on the business. On this measure the market and the model broadly agree, so the interesting question is which of them is wrong.
Our moat model scores it 72 out of 100, which is a wide moat. A moat is a structural reason competitors cannot take the profits away, and it matters more to a long holding period than any single quarter's numbers do.
It changes hands at 20.3 times earnings. Be careful reading that in isolation: for a cyclical business a low P/E arrives at the top of the cycle, when profits are peaking and about to fall, which is exactly when the shares look cheapest and are not.
About Qualcomm Inc.
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 with connectivity and computing technologies for use in mobile devices; automotive systems for connectivity, digital cockpit, and ADAS/AD; and IoT, including consumer electronic devices, industrial devices, and edge networking products. The QTL segment grants licenses or provides rights to use portions of its intellectual property portfolio, which include various patent rights useful in the manufacture and sale of wireless products comprising products implementing LTE, and/or OFDMA-based 5G products and derivatives; to use cellular standard-essential patents, including 3G, 4G and 5G for cellular devices. The QSI segment invests in early-stage companies in various industries, including 5G, artificial intelligence, automotive, consumer, enterprise, cloud, IoT, and extended reality, and investments, including non-marketable equity securities and, to a lesser extent, marketable equity securities, and convertible debt instruments. It also provides development, and other services and sells related products to the United States government agencies and their contractors. In addition, the company is also involved in Qualcomm government technologies and data center businesses. Further, it provides security and intelligence services for unmanaged networks through software-based network security solutions. QUALCOMM Incorporated was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.
QCOM passes 3 of our 30 screens today
Each screen prints the exact criteria it used, and the circumstances in which it is wrong.
Smart money ownership
21 of the funds we track reported a position in their latest SEC 13F filing. Largest first:
- Cliff Asness, AQR CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC$279.11M · 0.1% of book
- Capital Research Global, Capital Research Global Investors$184.66M · 0.0% of book
- Philippe Laffont, COATUE MANAGEMENT LLC$178.66M · 0.6% of book
- Ken Fisher, Fisher Asset Management, LLC$138.74M · 0.1% of book
- Ken Griffin, CITADEL ADVISORS LLC$95.24M · 0.0% of book
A word of warning on reading these figures: a 13F reports the market value of a holding, so a fund that traded nothing at all still appears to have sold when the price fell. We found 102 companies where the standard reading gives the opposite answer. Only the share count is honest.
Common questions
Is Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) undervalued?
Against our discounted cash flow estimate of $190.00, QCOM at $170.61 is 11% below fair value. That is one model's answer, not a recommendation, and most of a DCF's output sits in a terminal value nobody can forecast.
Which funds own QCOM?
21 of the institutions we track reported a position in QCOM in their most recent SEC 13F filing. A 13F is filed up to 45 days after quarter end, so it tells you what a fund held then, not what it holds now.
What is QCOM's P/E ratio?
QCOM trades at 20.3 times earnings. A low P/E is not automatically cheap: on a cyclical company it is usually a warning that earnings are at a peak.
The full research page for QCOM, with financial statements, ownership detail, peer comparison and alerts, is free inside the app.
Data from company filings, exchange quotes and SEC EDGAR 13F disclosures. Quotes are delayed. Metrics we do not have are left out rather than estimated. Educational information, not financial advice.