A 2-of-4 scorecard pairs cash-backed profits and a 21.6% free-cash-flow margin with revenue down about 3.5% and weakening price structure. The stock trades at 20x earnings, 30% below its high, and analysts are split — 42% Buy, 44% Hold, 14% Sell across 19 firms, with about 7% upside to a $193.97 target. Current price: $181.92.
Changes over time: 2 discontinued (Huawei settlement licensing, last 2021; EC fine-reversal benefit, last 2022), 2 New & Sustained, 2 Evolved, 2 New Products — a portfolio shifting toward automotive and IoT.
Qualcomm's opportunity spans 5G handsets, a fast-growing automotive design pipeline, and IoT and PC processors as it diversifies beyond its smartphone-modem roots. The overhang framed in the filing is concentration and vertical-integration risk: its largest customer is building its own modems, and patent-licensing revenue faces ongoing legal and regulatory challenges.
Qualcomm converts revenue to cash at a high rate — a 21.6% free-cash-flow margin and a 36.1% return on equity — and restnvest rates profit quality and debt safety strong, for a 2-of-4 financial scorecard. The limiter is growth: trailing revenue slipped about 3.5% year over year as handset demand softened, leaving growth quality and owner-value quality rated mixed. This is a cash-rich, high-return franchise whose reinvestment runway is the open question.
Y = price target. X = days remaining on call (negative = past expected hit window). Bubble size = Anachart Performance Score. Dashed vertical = the expected-hit boundary.
Chart shows 5 of 19 covering analysts. See all on Anachart →
Qualcomm sets a cheap, cash-generative franchise against a genuinely split Street. The supportive side is concrete: restnvest scores fundamentals 2 of 4 strong, with cash-backed profits and comfortable coverage, a 21.6% free-cash-flow margin, a 36% return on equity, and a 2% dividend — all at just under 20x trailing earnings. The cautious side is just as concrete: trailing revenue is down about 3.5% year over year as handset demand softened, growth and owner-value quality are rated mixed, and the chart is weakening 30% below its high, leaving restnvest's timing lens 0 of 3 supportive. The analyst lens is the most divided in this group — across 19 firms, 42.42% Buy, 43.94% Hold and 13.64% Sell, a 93.5% hit ratio, and the latest action a TD Cowen Buy at $200. The $193.97 average target implies only about 7% upside, and the split ratings capture a real debate: bulls point to automotive and IoT diversification and a cheap multiple, while skeptics weigh a maturing smartphone market and the risk that Qualcomm's largest customer designs it out with in-house modems. A long-term investor weighs a high-return, cash-rich business at a low multiple against a declining top line and coverage that, unusually, has no clear consensus. Two data notes: revenue growth is the latest quarterly figure (-3.5% year over year), as a clean annual figure was not available on the source page; and analyst performance scores use a hit-ratio-based 0-10 proxy applied consistently across this group.
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