Get ready to be inundated with earnings analyses. One of Wall Street's most popular stocks, Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), reports tomorrow, and there should be no lack of punditry in the aftermath. Before the rush begins, though, let's take a look at a few of the numbers that matter.

Wall Street Wisdom:

  • General consensus. Blue Horseshoe loves Qualcomm -- and so do the analysts. No fewer than 37 of them follow Qualcomm, and the vast majority love the stock, which gets nine "holds" and a single "sell" -- with everyone else cheering "buy!"
  • Revenues. Really, with numbers like these, who wouldn't love Qualcomm? Analysts believe the company boosted its revenues by 26% to $1.75 billion in its fiscal first quarter of 2006.
  • Earnings. They think profits did even better, and they predict that Qualcomm earned $0.38 per share -- a 36% increase over last year's Q1.

Margin watch:
But if you really want to know why analysts love Qualcomm, just take a look at its margins. It's not often you find a company sporting 40% operating margins or a 30% net this side of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). True, the operating margins have been on a bit of a slide recently, but just a bit -- and for good reason. As my fellow Fool Dave Mock pointed out a few months back, Qualcomm has upped its research-and-development expenditures significantly in recent quarters, so that operating margin pullback might be likened to the compressing of a spring. It looks smaller now, but wait until it releases.

Margins %

6/04

9/04

12/04

3/05

6/05

9/05

Gross

70.6

69.6

69.5

69.4

69.1

71.0

Op.

43.6

42.2

41.2

40.1

39.0

41.6

Net

34.9

35.2

37.2

36.9

38.2

37.8
All data courtesy of Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Data reflects trailing=12-months performance for the quarters ending in the named months.

Valuation metrics:
High quality rarely comes without a high price tag. If you want to own a piece of Qualcomm, it's going to cost you 37 times earnings (and the same multiple to free cash flow) to do it.

Competitors:
Here's a nice dilemma to have: Qualcomm's biggest competitors occasionally pay it royalties for using its technology. They include Nokia (NYSE:NOK) and Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN).

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Fool contributorRich Smithowns shares of Nokia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.