Qualcomm beats expectations with record Q4 revenues across the chip business

Qualcomm published better-than-expected fourth quarter financial results on Wednesday, with the solid revenue growth across the industries and applications it serves.

Qualcomm’s non-GAAP diluted earnings per share in Q4 came to $2.55. Revenue was $9.32 billion, up 43% year-over-year.

Wall Street was expecting earnings of $2.26 on revenue of $8.86 billion.

For the full fiscal year 2021, Qualcomm’s non-GAAP EPS came to $8.54 on GAAP revenues of $33.6 billion.

“As of fiscal 2021, we are exceeding our 2019 Analyst Day targets for revenue growth and diversification and operating margin expansion, while more than doubling our year-over-year Non-GAAP EPS,” CEO Cristiano Amon said in a statement. “We are well positioned to continue to lead in mobile and enable the digital transformation of industries with our broad portfolio of relevant technologies. Our results across RF front-end, Automotive and IoT attest to the success of our technology roadmap and revenue diversification strategy.”

Fourth quarter revenues from the Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL) segment, Qualcomm’s licensing division, came to $1.56 billion, a 3% increase year-over-year. QTL accounts for a significant portion of Qualcomm’s earnings.

The company’s other business segment, QCT (Qualcomm CDA Technologies), accounts for most of its revenue. QCT revenues in Q4 were $7.73 billion, a 56% increase year-over-year. Within QCT, revenue from handsets grew 56% to $4.69 billion. RF front-end revenue grew 45% to reach $1.23 billion. IoT revenue grew 66% to hit $1.54 billion. Lastly, automotive revenue grew 44% to $270 million.

For FY 2021, QTL revenues were $6.32 billion, up 26%. Revenues from QCT came to $27 billion, up 64%.

For the first quarter of FY 2022, Qualcomm expects revenues between $10 billion and $10.8 billion, with QCT accounting for $8.4 billion to $8.9 billion. Wall Street is expecting total revenue of $9.7 billion in Q1.