Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) Trading Down 1.6% – Time to Sell?

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM)’s share price dropped 1.6% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $181.60 and last traded at $181.92. 22,657,921 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 33% from the average daily volume of 17,088,441 shares. The stock had previously closed at $184.79.

Qualcomm News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Qualcomm this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts at Erste Group Bank raised their FY2027 EPS estimate for Qualcomm, signaling slightly better earnings expectations and supporting the stock’s longer-term outlook.
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage highlighting Qualcomm’s push into AI compute and data center chips suggests a potential new growth path, with the company reportedly targeting $15 billion in data center revenue by fiscal 2029 and seeing deployments from Meta and Microsoft.
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that ByteDance is partnering with Qualcomm on a future in-house CPU reinforce Qualcomm’s role in next-generation AI infrastructure and could add to investor confidence in its chip pipeline.
• Neutral Sentiment: Qualcomm remains a widely watched stock, but the “trending” coverage is informational rather than a direct catalyst for earnings or guidance.
• Neutral Sentiment: Bernstein reportedly reiterated a Hold rating, which suggests analysts see limited near-term upside but not a major deterioration in fundamentals.
• Negative Sentiment: Tech stocks are facing pressure from rising interest rates and uncertainty ahead of jobs data, which is weighing on Qualcomm along with the broader semiconductor group.
• Negative Sentiment: A recent market update noted Qualcomm fell while the overall market gained, reflecting continued investor caution after the stock’s recent pullback.
• Negative Sentiment: Speculation that Qualcomm may not acquire Tenstorrent removes a possible AI-related upside story that some investors had been watching.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on QCOM. Evercore set a $179.00 price objective on Qualcomm in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Oppenheimer cut Qualcomm from a “market perform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Robert W. Baird set a $300.00 target price on Qualcomm in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded Qualcomm to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Qualcomm from $170.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $220.45.

Qualcomm Stock Down 1.6%

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $203.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $167.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a market capitalization of $191.74 billion, a PE ratio of 19.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.62 and a beta of 1.59.

Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The wireless technology company reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.56 by $0.09. Qualcomm had a return on equity of 42.11% and a net margin of 22.31%.The company had revenue of $10.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.85 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Qualcomm has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 2.100-2.300 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Qualcomm Incorporated will post 7.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Qualcomm announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, March 17th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the wireless technology company to purchase up to 14.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Qualcomm

In other news, EVP Akash J. Palkhiwala sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.34, for a total value of $325,850.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 30,684 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,999,352.56. The trade was a 7.53% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Patricia Y. Grech sold 829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.77, for a total transaction of $167,267.33. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,806 shares of company stock worth $3,928,958. 0.05% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Qualcomm by 116.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 17,356 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock worth $2,666,000 after purchasing an additional 9,343 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Qualcomm by 15.4% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,542 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock valued at $391,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Qualcomm by 44.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,325 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock worth $530,000 after buying an additional 1,020 shares during the period. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC increased its stake in Qualcomm by 6.1% during the 2nd quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 5,778 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock worth $920,000 after buying an additional 333 shares during the period. Finally, Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Qualcomm by 9.7% during the 2nd quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,800 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock worth $1,083,000 after buying an additional 603 shares in the last quarter. 74.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Qualcomm Company Profile

Qualcomm Incorporated is a global semiconductor and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in San Diego, California. Founded in 1985, the company is known for its development of wireless technologies and for playing a central role in the evolution of digital cellular standards, including CDMA and subsequent generations of mobile standards. Qualcomm’s business combines the design and sale of semiconductor products with a patent licensing program for wireless technologies and related intellectual property.

The company’s product portfolio includes system-on-chip (SoC) platforms marketed under the Snapdragon brand, cellular modem and RF front-end components, connectivity solutions for Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth, and processors and platforms aimed at automotive, IoT, networking and edge-computing applications.