Qualcomm
Qualcomm's revenue rose 13.7% to $44.3 billion in fiscal 2025. Its operating margin was 27.9%, up from 25.9% a year earlier. Free cash flow was $12.8 billion, up 14.9%. It paid out $12.6 billion in dividends and buybacks, 98% of free cash flow. The diluted share count fell 2.2%.
Operating margin is operating income as a share of revenue. Free cash flow is cash from operations minus capital spending. Return on capital is after-tax operating income as a share of the money invested in the business: debt plus equity, minus cash. Market cap is the last closing share price times the latest diluted share count, so it is approximate. P/E is the last close divided by diluted earnings per share over the last four quarters, or the latest fiscal year where the quarters aren't available; there is none when the company made a loss.
What Qualcomm does
Qualcomm designs chips and licenses wireless technology. Its Snapdragon chips, which combine processors and modems, run many smartphones, and it also sells chips for cars, personal computers, smart glasses and other connected devices, factory equipment and network gear. It owns a large set of patents on the cellular technology, such as 4G and 5G, that phones use to send voice and data.
Revenue was $44.3 billion in the fiscal year that ended in September 2025. It earns money in two main ways. Its chip segment, QCT, brought in $38.4 billion, mostly from phone chips but also from chips for cars and other devices. Its licensing segment, QTL, collects royalties from device makers based on their sales of phones and other products that use its patents. A third segment makes investments. Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi each accounted for ten percent or more of revenue. Qualcomm competes with many US and foreign chip companies, and with chips that some of its largest customers design for themselves.
Qualcomm was incorporated in California in 1985. In June 2025 it agreed to buy Alphawave IP Group, at a value of about $2.4 billion, a deal still pending when it filed this report. It had about 52,000 workers at the end of September 2025, mostly full-time employees, in 38 countries.
Its biggest risks, as it describes them
- Its reliance on a few large customers and licensees, and on sales of high-end phones.
- Customers designing their own chips instead of buying from Qualcomm.
- Its dependence on Chinese phone makers and on sales into China.
- Phone makers trying to avoid paying royalties, and the need to renew expiring license agreements.
- Government investigations and legal challenges to how it licenses its patents.
Charts show fiscal years, from the 10-K filings.
Revenue and margins
Net income and earnings per share
From fiscal 2016 to 2025, earnings per share grew 3.1% a year and net income fell 0.3% a year, as buybacks cut the share count by 26%.
Returns on capital
Cash flow
Payouts and share count
Valuation
Two ways to value Qualcomm yourself, both starting from its filings: a discounted cash flow model and the price-to-earnings method.
Discounted cash flow (DCF)
A discounted cash flow (DCF) model values a business as the cash it may generate in future, discounted back to today. The starting figures come from Qualcomm's 10-K (or, for net cash and shares, its latest 10-Q) and the assumptions are yours: start from one of three example scenarios, then change any figure to see what it implies for a share, and how that compares with the last share price.
Value per share on three example scenarios, from Qualcomm's fiscal 2025 free cash flow of $12.8B, net cash of −$4.7B at September 28, 2025 and 1,105 million diluted shares, from its filings. The scenarios are fitted to Qualcomm: the base scenario's growth in years 1 to 5 is its revenue growth over the last 3 years, 0.1% a year; the cautious and optimistic ones are lower and higher, and growth in years 6 to 10 is halfway to the long-run rate. The base scenario's discount rate is 11% for a cyclical or higher-risk business (Semiconductors); the cautious and optimistic ones use a point more and a point less. Select one to load it into the calculator. These are the model's arithmetic on those assumptions, not a forecast or a price target.
- Last close, October 26, 2026
- $179.60
- Value on these assumptions, against the last close
- —
- Cash flows in years 1 to 10, valued today
- —
- Everything after year 10, valued today
- —
- Plus net cash
- —
- Share of value from after year 10
How the value changes with two assumptions
Price-to-earnings (P/E) method
Another common way to value a company is to multiply its earnings per share by a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple: the number of years of today's earnings an investor pays for a share. A higher multiple usually means investors expect earnings to grow. Choose a multiple, for example from similar companies, to see the value it gives.
Value per share on three example scenarios, from Qualcomm's earnings per share of $8.75 (over the last four quarters). Each grows earnings for a year at the cash flow scenarios' rates and applies a multiple to next year's earnings: 34×, the middle of Qualcomm's own P/E today, its peers' median and its sector's median (the Information Technology median) for the base scenario, 20% less and more for the cautious and optimistic ones. The price is brought back a year at 12%, 11% and 10%. Select one to load it into the calculator. These are the model's arithmetic on those assumptions, not a forecast or a price target.
- Last close, October 26, 2026
- $179.60
- Value at this multiple, against the last close
- —
- Qualcomm's P/E at the last close
- 20.5×
| Company | Last close | Earnings per share | P/E today |
|---|---|---|---|
| AMDAMD | $531.28 | $3.89 | 136.6× |
| BroadcomAVGO | $329.17 | $7.84 | 42.0× |
| Texas InstrumentsTXN | $298.12 | $7.71 | 38.7× |
| QualcommQCOM | $179.60 | $8.75 | 20.5× |
Balance sheet
| Fiscal year end | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash and short-term investments | 12.4 | 6.4 | 11.3 | 13.3 | 10.2 |
| Debt incl. finance leases | 13.7 | 13.5 | 14.5 | 13.3 | 14.8 |
| Net debt (negative means net cash) | 1.3 | 7.2 | 3.2 | −0.0 | 4.7 |
| Net debt to EBITDA | 0.1x | 0.4x | 0.3x | −0.0x | 0.3x |
| Debt to equity | 1.4x | 0.8x | 0.7x | 0.5x | 0.7x |
| Interest coverage | 17.5x | 32.4x | 11.2x | 14.4x | 18.6x |
| Current ratio | 1.7x | 1.8x | 2.3x | 2.4x | 2.8x |
| Quick ratio | 1.4x | 1.2x | 1.7x | 1.8x | 2.1x |
Insider trades
Over the 12 months between October 27, 2025 and October 26, 2026, no insider bought Qualcomm shares on the open market, and 6 insiders sold $21.6 million, all of it under trading plans set up in advance.
| Date | Insider | Trade | Shares | Price | Value | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 20, 2026 | Akash J. PalkhiwalaEVP, CFO & COO | Sold plan | 2,500 | $175.06 | $437,647 | Form 4 |
| Oct 16, 2026 | Ann C ChaplinEVP, GenCounsel&CorpSecretary | Sold plan | 1,827 | $174.75 | $319,268 | Form 4 |
| Oct 2, 2026 | Patricia Y GrechSVP, Chief Accounting Officer | Sold plan | 98 | $186.55 | $18,282 | Form 4 |
| Sep 25, 2026 | Cristiano R AmonPresident & CEO, Director | Sold plan | 10,000 | $200.00 | $2.0 million | Form 4 |
| Sep 21, 2026 | Cristiano R AmonPresident & CEO, Director | Sold plan | 10,000 | $195.00 | $1.9 million | Form 4 |
| Sep 11, 2026 | Akash J. PalkhiwalaEVP, CFO & COO | Sold plan | 2,500 | $182.85 | $457,125 | Form 4 |
| Aug 31, 2026 | Patricia Y GrechSVP, Chief Accounting Officer | Sold plan | 208 | $170.00 | $35,360 | Form 4 |
| Aug 21, 2026 | Patricia Y GrechSVP, Chief Accounting Officer | Sold plan | 625 | $162.85 | $101,781 | Form 4 |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Akash J. PalkhiwalaEVP, CFO & COO | Sold plan | 2,500 | $163.26 | $408,150 | Form 4 |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Heather S AceEVP, Chief HR Officer | Sold plan | 3,200 | $147.04 | $470,528 | Form 4 |
| Jul 14, 2026 | Akash J. PalkhiwalaEVP, CFO & COO | Sold plan | 2,500 | $180.81 | $452,031 | Form 4 |
| Jun 11, 2026 | Akash J. PalkhiwalaEVP, CFO & COO | Sold plan | 2,500 | $197.35 | $493,380 | Form 4 |
Piotroski F-score
The F-score counts how many of nine simple tests of profitability, funding and efficiency a company passed in a year (Piotroski, 2000). The more tests passed, the stronger the year: 8 or 9 is strong, 0 to 2 weak. Companies that report no gross profit are scored on the other eight.
| Test | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net income is positive | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Cash from operations is positive | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Return on assets rose | Fail | Pass | Fail |
| Cash from operations exceeds net income | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Debt fell relative to assets | Pass | Pass | Fail |
| Current ratio rose | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Share count didn't rise | Pass | Fail | Pass |
| Gross margin rose | Fail | Pass | Fail |
| Revenue rose relative to assets | Fail | Pass | Pass |
| F-score | 6 of 9 | 8 of 9 | 6 of 9 |
| Accruals ratio | −8.1% | −3.9% | −16.1% |
Compare
Put Qualcomm side by side with any other company we cover: revenue, growth, margins, cash flow and returns, with ten years of charts.
Similar companies
| Company | Year | Revenue growth | Operating margin | Free cash flow margin | Return on capital | Net debt to EBITDA | F-score | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm | FY25 | 13.7% | 27.9% | 28.9% | 23.7% | 0.3x | 6 | |
| Intel | FY25 | −0.5% | −4.2% | −9.4% | −0.8% | 1.0x | 6 | Compare |
| AMD | FY25 | 34.3% | 10.7% | 19.4% | 6.7% | −1.0x | 8 | Compare |
| Broadcom | FY25 | 23.9% | 39.9% | 42.1% | 19.9% | 1.4x | 7 | Compare |
| Texas Instruments | FY25 | 13.1% | 34.1% | 14.7% | 21.8% | 1.1x | 6 | Compare |
10 years of figures
| Fiscal year | FY16 | FY17 | FY18 | FY19 | FY20 | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | ||||||||||
| Revenue | 23.6 | 22.3 | 22.6 | 24.3 | 23.5 | 33.6 | 44.2 | 35.8 | 39.0 | 44.3 |
| Revenue growth | −6.8% | −5.5% | 1.6% | 7.3% | −3.1% | 42.6% | 31.7% | −19.0% | 8.8% | 13.7% |
| Gross profit | 13.8 | 12.5 | 12.4 | 15.7 | 14.3 | 19.3 | 25.6 | 20.0 | 21.9 | 24.5 |
| Research and development | 5.2 | 5.5 | 5.6 | 5.4 | 6.0 | 7.2 | 8.2 | 8.8 | 8.9 | 9.0 |
| Operating income | 6.5 | 2.6 | 0.6 | 7.7 | 6.3 | 9.8 | 15.9 | 7.8 | 10.1 | 12.4 |
| Net income | 5.7 | 2.4 | −5.0 | 4.4 | 5.2 | 9.0 | 12.9 | 7.2 | 10.1 | 5.5 |
| Diluted EPS (US$) | 3.81 | 1.64 | −3.39 | 3.59 | 4.52 | 7.87 | 11.37 | 6.42 | 8.97 | 5.01 |
| Diluted shares (millions) | 1,498 | 1,490 | 1,463 | 1,220 | 1,149 | 1,149 | 1,137 | 1,126 | 1,130 | 1,105 |
| Cash flow | ||||||||||
| Cash from operations | 7.6 | 5.0 | 3.9 | 7.3 | 5.8 | 10.5 | 9.1 | 11.3 | 12.2 | 14.0 |
| Capital expenditure | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 1.2 |
| Free cash flow | 7.1 | 4.3 | 3.1 | 6.4 | 4.4 | 8.6 | 6.8 | 9.8 | 11.2 | 12.8 |
| Dividends paid | 3.0 | 3.3 | 3.5 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 3.0 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 3.7 | 3.8 |
| Share buybacks | 3.9 | 1.3 | 22.6 | 1.8 | 2.5 | 3.4 | 3.1 | 3.0 | 4.1 | 8.8 |
| Acquisitions | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Stock-based compensation | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 2.8 |
| Balance sheet at fiscal year end | ||||||||||
| Cash and short-term investments | 18.6 | 37.3 | 12.1 | 12.3 | 11.2 | 12.4 | 6.4 | 11.3 | 13.3 | 10.2 |
| Debt incl. finance leases | 11.8 | — | 15.4 | 13.4 | 15.2 | 13.7 | 13.5 | 14.5 | 13.3 | 14.8 |
| Total assets | 52.4 | 65.5 | 32.7 | 33.0 | 35.6 | 41.2 | 49.0 | 51.0 | 55.2 | 50.1 |
| Total liabilities | 20.6 | 34.7 | 31.9 | 28.0 | 29.5 | 31.3 | 31.0 | 29.5 | 28.9 | 28.9 |
| Shareholders' equity | 31.8 | 30.7 | 0.8 | 4.9 | 6.1 | 9.9 | 18.0 | 21.6 | 26.3 | 21.2 |
| Margins and ratios | ||||||||||
| Gross margin | 58.6% | 56.0% | 54.7% | 64.6% | 60.7% | 57.5% | 57.8% | 55.7% | 56.2% | 55.4% |
| Operating margin | 27.6% | 11.6% | 2.8% | 31.6% | 26.6% | 29.2% | 35.9% | 21.7% | 25.9% | 27.9% |
| Net margin | 24.2% | 11.0% | −21.9% | 18.1% | 22.1% | 26.9% | 29.3% | 20.2% | 26.0% | 12.5% |
| Free cash flow margin | 30.1% | 19.4% | 13.8% | 26.4% | 18.7% | 25.8% | 15.5% | 27.5% | 28.6% | 28.9% |
| Return on capital | 21.7% | — | — | 88.4% | 70.3% | 80.8% | 75.4% | 30.8% | 38.6% | 23.7% |
| Return on equity | 18.1% | 7.8% | −31.5% | 153.5% | 94.6% | 112.8% | 92.5% | 36.5% | 42.4% | 23.3% |
| Return on assets | 11.1% | 4.2% | −10.1% | 13.4% | 15.2% | 23.5% | 28.7% | 14.5% | 19.1% | 10.5% |
| Net debt to EBITDA | −0.9x | — | 1.5x | 0.1x | 0.5x | 0.1x | 0.4x | 0.3x | −0.0x | 0.3x |