Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) reported a 13% dip in earnings for the first quarter of 2020 due to income tax expense. However, the results exceeded analysts’ expectations. Further, the company guided second-quarter earnings and revenue within the consensus view.
Net income fell by 13% to $925 million or $0.80 per share. Adjusted earnings dropped by 18% to $0.99 per share. Revenue rose by 5% to $5.08 billion. Analysts had expected EPS of $0.85 on revenue of $4.83 billion.
Looking ahead into the second quarter, the company sees revenue in the range of $4.9-5.7 billion and adjusted earnings in the range of $0.80-0.95 per share. The consensus estimates EPS of $0.86 on revenue of $5.08 billion. GAAP earnings are anticipated to be in the range of $0.50-0.65.
The results reflected a significant inflection point for Qualcomm backed by the benefits from the ramp of 5G. The company expects to begin recording equipment revenues for new chipset models under its multi-year chipset agreement with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) in the second half of fiscal 2020.
For the first quarter, revenue from Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL) jumped by 38% helped by the inclusion of royalties from Apple for sales made during the December quarter. The company did not record any revenues for royalties due on the sales of Huawei’s products.
Revenue from Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT) declined by 3% due to a decrease in mobile station modem (MSM) and accompanying RF, PM and wireless connectivity chipset shipments. This was due to lower modem sales to Apple and a fall in 4G premium tier shipments ahead of the ramp of 5G.
During the first quarter, about 155 million MSM integrated circuits were sold, which is 17% lower than the previous year quarter. The MSM integrated circuits include its stand-alone mobile data modems (MDM) and Snapdragon platforms, including processors and modems.
In the coming years, Qualcomm expects consumer demand for 3G/4G multimode and 4G products and services to decline due to new consumer demand for 5G. The company expects growth in new device categories and industries including automotive, computing, Internet of Things (IoT) and networking.