Qualcomm Goes Above and Beyond

With all the gloom and doom surrounding the market these days, it's refreshing to see companies still reporting strong results and optimistic outlooks for the balance of the year. In the case of wireless technology developer Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM), it managed to do all this even after discounting hundreds of millions of dollars in license fees it believes it's due from top handset maker Nokia (Nasdaq: NOK). 

Qualcomm again beat expectations, reporting revenue growth of 17% to $2.61 billion for its second quarter. Earnings on a GAAP basis came in at $766 million, a 6% increase from last year.

The icing on the cake, though, was Qualcomm's boost in 2008 guidance: It included higher expectations for revenue and growth in presenting $1.71 to $1.76 per diluted share, even accounting for product bans induced by Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM) and factoring out roughly $0.25 to $0.30 per share from Nokia.

Qualcomm is still experiencing strong demand for products carrying its technology and chipsets. The average selling price of handsets that bring the company royalties is also holding up nicely, with Qualcomm now expecting an average wholesale price closer to $217 than the $203 it had announced in earlier guidance for fiscal 2008.

There is traction on a number of new fronts as well. The company's mobile broadband chipsets have been adopted by several top-tier laptop makers including Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Dell (Nasdaq: DELL), and it now has a mobile banking partnership with Citigroup (NYSE: C) and AT&T (NYSE: T), which are committed to rolling out mobile television service on Qualcomm's MediaFLO network in May.

It's also nice to see Qualcomm sharing its cash hoard: The company now sits on $10.6 billion in cash and equivalents, versus $11.2 billion in the previous quarter. While the company continues to be generous with new research and development projects, it just boosted its dividend and will be buying back more stock to improve shareholder value.  

This summer, some of the legal uncertainties facing Qualcomm may be resolved: The company will be in court and in front of the U.S. International Trade Commission to discuss several disputes with both Nokia and Broadcom. Just about any positive outcome from any of these disputes would make an already good story even better.

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