StockNews.com Downgrades QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM) to Buy

StockNews.com cut shares of QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on QCOM. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of QUALCOMM from $180.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Bank of America increased their price target on QUALCOMM from $180.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of QUALCOMM from $205.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of QUALCOMM from $140.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of QUALCOMM from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $210.63.

QUALCOMM Trading Down 1.0 %

QCOM stock opened at $163.70 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $182.36 billion, a PE ratio of 22.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $180.77 and its 200 day moving average is $181.31. QUALCOMM has a 12 month low of $104.33 and a 12 month high of $230.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 2.39 and a quick ratio of 1.78.

QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The wireless technology company reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $9.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.23 billion. QUALCOMM had a net margin of 23.32% and a return on equity of 38.12%. On average, research analysts anticipate that QUALCOMM will post 7.98 EPS for the current year.

QUALCOMM Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 5th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.08%. QUALCOMM’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.70%.

Insider Activity at QUALCOMM

In related news, CTO James H. Thompson sold 8,000 shares of QUALCOMM stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.50, for a total value of $1,284,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 229,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,912,913.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other QUALCOMM news, CTO James H. Thompson sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.50, for a total value of $1,284,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 229,987 shares in the company, valued at $36,912,913.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Akash J. Palkhiwala sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.61, for a total transaction of $616,830.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 60,343 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,407,124.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 19,000 shares of company stock worth $3,496,590. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On QUALCOMM

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in QUALCOMM by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 25,336,496 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock valued at $3,664,418,000 after acquiring an additional 1,909,025 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of QUALCOMM in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,507,978,000. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of QUALCOMM by 0.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,036,779 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock valued at $1,999,114,000 after purchasing an additional 86,195 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Capital Management Company LP purchased a new position in shares of QUALCOMM during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,171,516,000. Finally, Putnam Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of QUALCOMM by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 6,340,667 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock valued at $917,051,000 after buying an additional 263,482 shares during the period. 74.35% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About QUALCOMM

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.