QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirty research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, fourteen have issued a hold recommendation, fourteen have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $205.32.

QCOM has been the subject of several research reports. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of QUALCOMM from $245.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Susquehanna reduced their target price on shares of QUALCOMM from $230.00 to $210.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of QUALCOMM from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of QUALCOMM in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $240.00 target price on shares of QUALCOMM in a research report on Friday, February 7th.

QUALCOMM Price Performance

QCOM opened at $156.58 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. QUALCOMM has a 52-week low of $149.43 and a 52-week high of $230.63. The company has a 50 day moving average of $164.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $164.40. The company has a market cap of $173.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.28.

QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The wireless technology company reported $2.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.93 by ($0.07). QUALCOMM had a return on equity of 39.51% and a net margin of 25.94%. On average, analysts expect that QUALCOMM will post 9.39 earnings per share for the current year.

QUALCOMM Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 6th will be given a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.17%. QUALCOMM’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.32%.

Insider Activity at QUALCOMM

In other QUALCOMM news, CFO Akash J. Palkhiwala sold 3,337 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.82, for a total value of $523,308.34. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 59,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,374,385.96. This represents a 5.29 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Heather S. Ace sold 1,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.24, for a total transaction of $246,784.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 24,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,762,376.32. The trade was a 6.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 27,968 shares of company stock worth $4,685,077 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of QUALCOMM

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in QUALCOMM by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 113,730,186 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock valued at $17,471,231,000 after buying an additional 707,468 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of QUALCOMM by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,615,929 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock worth $8,777,289,000 after purchasing an additional 870,814 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of QUALCOMM by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,798,900 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock worth $4,262,826,000 after purchasing an additional 670,432 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of QUALCOMM in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,721,882,000. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in shares of QUALCOMM by 36.6% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 14,579,529 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock worth $2,313,634,000 after purchasing an additional 3,905,918 shares in the last quarter. 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.