QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM) Stock Price Up 2.5% – What’s Next?

QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) shares shot up 2.5% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $175.90 and last traded at $176.17. 1,825,378 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 7,177,114 shares. The stock had previously closed at $171.93.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on QCOM. Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of QUALCOMM from $230.00 to $210.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of QUALCOMM from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Melius began coverage on shares of QUALCOMM in a research note on Monday, December 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $180.00 target price for the company. Barclays cut their target price on shares of QUALCOMM from $200.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $240.00 price target on shares of QUALCOMM in a report on Thursday, November 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, QUALCOMM presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $206.57.

QUALCOMM Stock Up 0.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $192.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $160.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $166.92.

QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The wireless technology company reported $2.26 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.01 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $10.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.90 billion. QUALCOMM had a return on equity of 38.81% and a net margin of 26.03%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that QUALCOMM Incorporated will post 9.16 EPS for the current year.

QUALCOMM Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. QUALCOMM’s payout ratio is 37.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other QUALCOMM news, General Counsel Ann C. Chaplin sold 2,587 shares of QUALCOMM stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.12, for a total transaction of $409,056.44. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 19,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,121,130.68. The trade was a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Neil Martin sold 1,304 shares of QUALCOMM stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.00, for a total transaction of $202,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 94 shares in the company, valued at $14,570. This represents a 93.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 26,882 shares of company stock worth $4,314,649. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On QUALCOMM

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in QCOM. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in QUALCOMM by 1,702.6% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,191,342 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock valued at $542,688,000 after purchasing an additional 3,014,302 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in QUALCOMM by 17,357.3% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,936,310 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock valued at $499,320,000 after purchasing an additional 2,919,490 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of QUALCOMM by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,128,468 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock worth $4,600,625,000 after acquiring an additional 1,989,725 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of QUALCOMM by 30.2% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,506,863 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock worth $1,250,644,000 after purchasing an additional 1,741,432 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in QUALCOMM by 202.6% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 2,061,900 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock worth $350,626,000 after buying an additional 1,380,500 shares in the last quarter. 74.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.