Qualcomm delivered a fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat , but that may not have been enough to satisfy some investors. The chip provider earned an adjusted $3 per share on revenue of $11.27 billion during its fiscal fourth quarter. That exceeded LSEG estimates for earnings per share of $2.88 and $10.79 billion in revenue. Qualcomm also issued a strong forecast for its current quarter. The company new expects revenue of between $11.8 billion and $12.6 billion, higher than the average analyst estimate of $11.62 billion. Adjusted earnings should come in at $3.30 to $3.50 per share, while analysts had penciled in $3.31 per share. Despite these strong results and guidance, some analysts couldn’t see past a waning opportunity in Apple. Qualcomm expects that in the years to come, it will lose Apple as a customer for its modem business. Shares of Qualcomm were last trading 2% on Thursday morning. “We raise estimates but maintain our Neutral rating given our belief that Apple’s transition to an internal modem will pressure QCOM EPS,” wrote Citi analyst Christopher Danely. Others, such as Bernstein’s Stacy Rasgon, argued that these concerns were overblown. “The AAPL roll-off is at this point entirely understood, and the company continues to demonstrate that they don’t really need them, benefiting from their high-end android presence with content increases and diversification driving double-digit ex-AAPL growth,” he wrote. Analysts remained pretty split between adopting an overweight or neutral stance on the name. Here’s what some of Wall Street’s biggest shops had to say on the report. Deutsche Bank: hold rating, $165 price target Analyst Ross Seymore’s target implies about 8% downside from Wednesday’s close. “QCOM issued a fundamentally strong report/guide, exceeding DBe by ~+5% on revenue & EPS in both periods. Impressively, the strength was well diversified as each subsegment within QCT exceeded DBe, with that diversity further highlighted by QCOM reporting FY25 ex-Apple revenue growth of +18% y/y. We expect this diversification theme to be further bolstered over the next few years as QCOM enters the Data Center market (AI and GP compute), with more details likely at the co’s 1H26 Investor Day. While we support QCOM’s execution in Android handsets and diversification efforts (Auto & IoT, to date), we fear that potential incremental near-term share loss at Samsung (75% vs 100% in prior gen?) and more certain declines at Apple (DBe ~$7.2b in FY25 in QCT falling to zero exiting FY27) will remain overhangs on QCOM shares.” Citi: neutral, $180 Citi’s forecast, up from $175, corresponds to less than 1% upside for Qualcomm. “Yesterday after the close, Qualcomm reported good results driven by strength in its Handset and IoT businesses (combined 78% of F4Q25 sales) but provided mixed guidance as higher sales were offset by higher opex. While QCOM guided sales above Consensus, EPS was guided below due to higher opex. We raise estimates but maintain our Neutral rating given our belief that Apple’s transition to an internal modem will pressure QCOM EPS.” UBS: neutral, $185 UBS’ target, raised from $175, calls for 3% upside going forward. “The story is becoming data center where QCOM will provide more details on its roadmap in 2026. We do believe it can be a player, but we can’t find much evidence of this product in the supply chain which leads us to conclude this roadmap is at best several years away from moving the needle. In the meantime, the issues are the same — including a potential quagmire with AAPL maybe no longer paying a royalty — or at the very least pushing for a much lower rate.” JPMorgan: overweight, $210 Analyst Samik Chatterjee’s forecast is 17% above Qualcomm’s Wednesday closing price. “With diversification efforts in relation to PCs still early in their ramp, along with upcoming revenue opportunities in Datacenter we continue to see an attractive entry point for long-term value investors willing to be patient, while the broader investor base appears to be focused on the headline deceleration in revenue growth from FY25 to FY26 with the compounding effect of share loss with Apple and modest share pull-back with Samsung rather than the technology leadership across end-markets which has supported the strong double-digit revenue growth in non-Apple revenues over the last 5 years.” Bank of America: buy, $215 The bank’s price target, lifted from $200, was approximately 20% higher than Qualcomm’s closing price on Wednesday. “Strong quarter with revenues up 10% vs Street’s 5.1%, primarily driven by 13.2% QCT growth vs. Street’s 7.7%. QCT strength was broad-based, with handsets, autos, and IoT up 14.2%, 17.1%, and 7.4%, respectively — all above Street estimates. OM of 33.8% was 20bps below Street expectations, but top-line growth supported a 12c EPS beat.” Bernstein: outperform, $215 The firm hiked its price target from $185. “Qualcomm has had some recent history of putting up solid quarters and, frustratingly, not getting rewarded for them in the near term; last night’s print appears consistent with this trend. But we thought things looked quite solid. The AAPL roll-off is at this point entirely understood, and the company continues to demonstrate that they don’t really need them, benefiting from their high-end android presence with content increases and diversification driving double-digit ex-AAPL growth. Samsung flagship share is admittedly falling this cycle to ~75% but we believe investors had begun to fear it might be worse (and 75% remains the company’s baseline). Fears over margins seem unfounded. Adjacent auto and IoT markets continue to put up strong growth, further diversifying the footprint, and analyst day targets were reiterated (with even a bit of potential upside in XR/VR). And while we wait to see what more they have to say on datacenter, management did point to a multi-billion dollar incremental opportunity.”
