As has been the case for a number of companies over the past week, financial results for the third quarter of 2016 have been coming in thick and fast. The latest of which is Qualcomm who have now released their financial particulars for the calendar Q3 2016 (their fiscal fourth quarter) which ended on September 25. Generally speaking, the results suggest the quarter was a very good quarter for the semiconductor company.
In terms of the big figures, Qualcomm has now confirmed that revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter came in at $6.2 billion. This marks a year-over-year increase of 13-percent from the $5.5 billion reported for the fiscal fourth quarter in 2015. While in terms of operating income, Qualcomm have now reported $1.8 billion for the last quarter which marks a year-over-year increase of 58-percent from $1.1 billion. As this is their fiscal fourth quarter, Qualcomm has also released details of their fiscal 2016 – which notes revenue of $23.6 billion and an operating income of 6.5 billion. Which contrasts slightly when compared to the year-over-year changes as revenue for 2015 was reported as $25.3 billion (a 7-percent decrease) and operating income for 2015 as $5.8 billion (an increase of 12-percent). Moving on to one of Qualcomm’s primary sources of revenue, smartphone chip shipments and Qualcomm has now confirmed that during the last quarter they managed to ship in the region of 211 million chips. Which represents a year-over-year positive change of 4-percent (up from 203 million for the same quarter in 2015) and up 5-percent quarter-over-quarter from 201 million during their fiscal Q3.
As part of the announcement, Qualcomm has attributed much of the increase for the last quarter to strong demand for their chips, coupled with new license agreements in China. Results which are “above the high end of our expectations” according to Qualcomm’s CEO, Steve Mollenkopf. In addition, Mollenkopf also notes that Qualcomm is expecting “continued growth of global 3G/4G device shipments” through the next calendar year and in no smart part, due to an increase in demand from emerging markets. As to be expected, Mollenkopf also expects the company to expand its footprint into new markets next year and largely thanks to Qualcomm’s recently-confirmed plans to acquire NXP in a deal which is reported to cost $38 billion.