QCOM US S&P 500NASDAQ-100Russell 1000 Earnings call · transcribed from the recording
Qualcomm (QCOM) · Q3 2026 results and valuation
Share price: $176.57 · 2026-11-11
Results Q3 2026 vs Q2 2026 · previous quarter · fiscal Q4 2026 · published 4 Nov 2026 and 29 Jul 2026
Net income down 37.5% on the previous quarter. Management sounded about as positive as a typical company call, in its script and in answers to analysts.
Only a basic analysis is available for this company at the moment.
1 · Numbers
−37.5%
Net income vs Q2 2026
Outlook given
Net income 1.25B vs 2.00B
Revenue +3.8%
2 · How management spoke
Typical
More upbeat than 57% of company calls
Answers to analysts: restrained, in line with the script.
Similar to last call.
3 · What stood out
Guidance
In QCT, Qualcomm expects revenues of $9 to $9.6 billion and EBT margins of 20 to 22%.
Valuation
Is Qualcomm undervalued?
Reverse DCF. Free cash flow from the last full fiscal year (2025-09-28), grown for 10 years, discounted back, plus a terminal value. “Implied growth” is the rate the current price assumes.
At 0.1% growth a year (3-year revenue growth), the model's fair value is $129.05 a share — the stock trades 37% above it. Today's price assumes 4.1% growth a year.
Current price
$176.57
close of 2026-11-11
Market implies growth of iThe yearly free-cash-flow growth, for the next 10 years, that today’s share price already assumes. If you believe the company grows faster than this, the stock is cheap under this model; slower, and it is expensive.
+4.1% for 10 yrs
Fair value / share
$129.05
Buy below
$96.79
Price vs fair value
Overvalued 37%
Price vs buy-below price
Overvalued 82%
Read between the lines
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Guidance
This forecast includes data center revenue growth to $5 billion in fiscal '27 and $15 billion in fiscal '29. Qualcomm is well positioned to execute on the vision it outlined at its recent Investor Day with QCT non-handset revenues expected to grow to $40 billion by fiscal '29, nearly double the target it had previously provided. As a result of its diversification execution, it now estimates non-handsets at more than 50% of QCT revenues in fiscal '27 and grow to approximately 2/3 in fiscal '29.
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Guidance
Qualcomm expects the full benefit of these actions to be reflected in QCT gross margins in the second half of fiscal 27.
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Guidance
QCT revenues of $9 billion, up 6% sequentially, were at the high end of Qualcomm's guidance.
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Fading
To the resulting revenue decline in mobile and consumer electronics, this is creating short-term pressure on QCT gross margins…
Source quote
“In addition to the resulting revenue decline in mobile and consumer electronics, this is creating short-term pressure on QCT gross margins... ...industry continues to be impacted by unprecedented memory prices, higher manufacturing and input costs as well as supply chain shortages driven by overall data center demand. We're implementing price increases and as they take effect, we expect to see gross margins realign to our operating model.”
Tone
How upbeat the language was, compared with other companiesiTone counts positive minus negative finance words, adjusted for length. Executives mostly speak positively, so the labels compare each call with every company's latest call: “typical” is the middle third, “very upbeat” the top tenth, “cautious” the bottom tenth.. Dot: Q3 2026. Ring: Q2 2026.
Script and answers carried a similar tone, so the script's message held up under questioning.
Sentences that drove the tone
“When you look at fiscal 28, we are looking at a $7 billion starting point and then the customers that we have in 27 will extend to 28 as well...”
“During the quarter, we also successfully validated our high-bandwidth compute technology in lab trials, marking a key milestone in delivering an innovative AI inference accelerator solution designed to address the...”
“Licensing gives Qualcomm a durable, highly profitable foundation as we scale our next set of growth opportunities.”
Full figures
USD · SEC EDGAR XBRL (10-Q, period end 2026-09-27)
| Metric | Q3 2026period end 2026-09-27 | Q2 2026period end 2026-06-28 | Change | Q3 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 10.32B | 9.95B | +3.8% | 11.27B | −8.4% |
| Gross profit | 5.24B | 5.28B | −0.7% | 6.24B | −16.0% |
| Operating income | 1.36B | 1.63B | −16.6% | 2.92B | −53.5% |
| Net income | 1.25B | 2.00B | −37.5% | -3.12B | Turned profit |
| EPS | 1.17 | 1.87 | −37.4% | -2.78 | Turned profit |
| P/E today 13.0 | 15.9 | 21.6 | −5.7 | 33.8 | −17.9 |
Topics
Most discussed now
- Going forward, Qualcomm's plan assumes global handset units will remain flat to down in calendar 27.
- QCT handset revenues of $5.1 billion reflected the impact of industry-wide memory dynamics on the global smartphone market.
- QCT IoT revenues of $1.9 billion were up 4% year-over-year, led by Qualcomm's industrial, networking, and robotics category of products,...
- Qualcomm is also expanding its customer engagement pipeline across additional global hyperscalers, including the long-term strategic…
- Qualcomm has very interesting technology demonstration of progress with optical and co-packaged optics in the quarter in the 2026 ECOC...
Faded since Q2 2026
- Fading At its recent Investor Day, Qualcomm lays out the next chapter of Qualcomm built across 3 dimensions: one, expanding into...
- Fading In QCT Automotive, Qualcomm delivered another record quarter with revenues of $1.6 billion, with 61% year-over-year growth driven by…
- Fading As you would expect, kind of Qualcomm is taking action to increase the prices and reflect it in its customer product...
Latest announcements
Official filings, newest first.
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K
- Unregistered share sale · SEC 8-K
- Other events · SEC 8-K
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K
- Unregistered share sale · SEC 8-K
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K
- Shareholder vote results · SEC 8-K · routine
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K