Qualcomm Reports Q3 2012 Results: $4.63 Billion In Revenues, Earnings Of $0.85 Per Share

Wireless equipment producer Qualcomm has just released its fiscal Q3 2012 financials, and it looks like the company’s recent hot streak has finally slowed down. Qualcomm reported revenues of $4.63 billion — up 28% year-over-year, but down 6% from the company’s previous record-breaking quarter. Meanwhile, the company also reported non-GAAP earnings of $0.85 per share, which is up 16% year-over-year but down 16% from Q2.

Analysts expected the company to report earnings of $0.86 per share on revenues of $4.7 billion — both slightly lower than what the company managed to hit in the previous quarter. Qualcomm also managed to rake in $1.38 billion in GAAP operating income, down 9% from last quarter but up 24% from the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, the company’s own guidance for this quarter forecasted non-GAAP earnings of between $0.83 and $0.89 per share on revenues of between $4.45 and $4.85 billion.

Though the company’s earnings were well in line with their own projections, it’s a bit of a surprise to see that they didn’t meet analyst expectations — it’s a feat that Qualcomm managed to pull off for the past five quarters. That said, Qualcomm CEO Dr. Paul E. Jacobs has said that the company has tweaked its outlook on the quarter to come:

“Looking forward, our growth estimates for 3G/4G device shipments in calendar 2012 have moderated slightly,” Jacobs stated. “We now expect the demand profile of the calendar year to be more back-end loaded as new devices are launched for the holiday season.”

In the days leading up to the release, there were rumblings that Qualcomm would move to put a more consumer-friendly spin on their oft-touted Snapdragon line of chipsets. The company has recently released an Android SDK that will help hardware makers and app developers tap more effectively into the Snapdragon hardware, allowing for potentially popular features like low-power geofencing, facial recognition, and noise cancellation to be introduced to a market full of innovation-hungry consumers.

Sadly, the company didn’t have anything further to offer on the consumerization of the Snapdragon brand, though there’s still hope for some additional insight. Qualcomm is due to kick off its earnings call at 1:45 PM Pacific/4:45 PM Eastern, so stay tuned for more as it happens.

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