Qualcomm earnings beat with $6B in revenue and $1.16 EPS

Following the bell today, Qualcomm reported earnings for its third fiscal quarter of 2016 that met analyst expectations in terms of earnings per share, and exceeded expectations in terms of revenue. The company attributed its results to progress with the number of licensees in China.

For the quarter ending June 26, the San Diego, California-based semiconductor and telecommunications products maker posted net income of $1.44 billion, up 22 percent from $1.18 billion.

Non-GAAP revenue surged 3.6 percent to $6.04 billion, or $1.16 cents per share, up from $5.8 billion a year ago.

Analysts had been expecting Qualcomm to report per-share earnings of 97 cents on revenue of $5.58 billion.

“We are continuing to make progress in our licensing business and expect that momentum to continue,” said Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated, during a conference call.

Right after the CEO’s statement, president Derek Aberle explained that Qualcomm is continuing to execute new license agreements in China, and that the company is still actively negotiating with the key remaining Chinese OEMs.

Mollenkopf added that regulators around the world are beginning to allocate spectrum for 5G consistent with the company’s 5G design and development effort: “Recent spectrum regulatory decisions and movement in the U.S. and Europe, combined with progress on the spectrum regulatory front in China, Japan and Korea, are good indications that the world is preparing for 5G.”

For the nine months ending in June 2016, Qualcomm posted net income of $4.11 billion, or $2.74 per diluted share, down 2.4 percent from $4.21 billion, or $2.53 per share in the 2015 comparable period. Revenues decreased 12.4 percent to $17.37 billion from $19.83 billion the year before.

In after-market trading, Qualcomm shares were up 6.8 percent after the earnings announcement.