QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM) Trading Up 3.9% - Time to Buy?

QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM - Get Free Report) shares were up 3.9% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $146.02 and last traded at $145.96. Approximately 1,650,877 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 8,855,939 shares. The stock had previously closed at $140.46.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on QCOM. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of QUALCOMM from $185.00 to $145.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on QUALCOMM from $205.00 to $190.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Benchmark reissued a "buy" rating and set a $240.00 target price on shares of QUALCOMM in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of QUALCOMM in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of QUALCOMM from $200.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $201.21.

QUALCOMM Trading Down 0.6 %

The stock has a market cap of $163.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.77, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 1.99. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $150.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $159.37.

QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that QUALCOMM Incorporated will post 9.39 EPS for the current year.

QUALCOMM Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 5th will be paid a $0.89 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 5th. This is an increase from QUALCOMM's previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.41%. QUALCOMM's payout ratio is currently 38.03%.

Insider Activity

In other QUALCOMM news, CAO Neil Martin sold 744 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.83, for a total value of $130,073.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 461 shares in the company, valued at approximately $80,596.63. The trade was a 61.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Heather S. Ace sold 1,600 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,762,376.32. This trade represents a 6.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 30,666 shares of company stock valued at $5,047,052. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On QUALCOMM

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in QUALCOMM by 2.5% in the 4th 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 bought a new stake in QUALCOMM during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,721,882,000. Amundi raised its holdings in 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 buying an additional 3,905,918 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of QUALCOMM by 12.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 13,289,513 shares of the wireless technology company's stock valued at $2,041,535,000 after buying an additional 1,493,076 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.35% of the company's stock.

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.