Key Stats for Qualcomm Stock
- Current Price: $175.91
- Target Price (Mid): ~$389
- Street Target: ~$196
- Potential Total Return: ~121%
- Annualized IRR: ~22% / year
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What Happened?
Qualcomm (QCOM) will cut jobs worldwide, CEO Cristiano Amon told staff in a memo first reported by Reuters on October 20. Notifications start in November, and the memo gave no headcount. Qualcomm had about 52,000 employees as of September 2025.
Shares closed up 1.26% on October 20, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) slipped 0.38%. They finished October 23 at $175.91, 32% below the 52-week intraday high of $259.92. The November 4 report, after the close, is the first chance for management to put numbers on the cuts.
Costs Rose Nearly 20% While Sales Fell 4%
In the fiscal third quarter ended June 28, revenue fell 4% to $9.95 billion. GAAP research and development plus selling, general and administrative costs rose about 20% to $3.58 billion. That figure includes $801 million of stock-based pay; on a non-GAAP basis, those two cost lines totaled $2.59 billion.
QCT, the chip unit, earned 26% of revenue before taxes, down from 30% a year earlier. Qualcomm also booked $70 million of restructuring charges in the quarter.
Amon’s memo did not present the cuts as a cost program. He called it a “performance-focused reduction” meant to build “a stronger performance culture.” He also wrote: “As we have expanded the business, so have the competencies and skills we require.” Qualcomm may be swapping skills rather than shrinking spending.
Where the New Skills Point
Revenue shows where the business is heading. Handset revenue fell 20% to $5.09 billion in the June quarter, while automotive rose 61% to $1.59 billion.
At Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia conference on September 8, CFO and COO Akash Palkhiwala said, “Next year, we expect to be the largest chip supplier to the automotive industry.” He added that “The compute content growth from Gen 3 to Gen 5 is 8x.”
He also described AI changing how Qualcomm’s engineers work: they use AI tokens to write software, design chips and support customers. He said “we’re seeing a massive growth in tokens usage within the company,” and that this kind of usage drives efficiencies and faster product launches. The memo did not cite AI as a reason for the cuts, and Qualcomm has not said which teams they will hit.
TIKR tracks 37 analysts on Qualcomm. How many say “Buy”?
See the full breakdown of Buy, Hold, and Sell ratings on Qualcomm, along with Wall Street’s revenue and earnings estimates, all in one place. More than 500,000 investors use TIKR to research stocks like this one. See Qualcomm’s Analyst Ratings
TIKR Advanced Model Analysis
- Current Price: $175.91
- Target Price (Mid): ~$389
- Potential Total Return: ~121%
- Annualized IRR: ~22% / year
The mid case is used as the base case. Its inputs assume revenue growth of around 10% a year and a net margin of around 27% across the model’s forecast. That depends on automotive and data center sales offsetting a shrinking handset business.
At around 19x forward earnings, Qualcomm trades near Broadcom (AVGO), also around 19x, and above Nvidia (NVDA) at around 17x. Most of the return has to come from earnings. Upside comes if growth businesses scale without spending rising as fast. Downside comes if handset losses outpace them. The target is a modeled scenario, not a forecast.
Conclusion
Consensus calls for December-quarter revenue of around $10.6 billion and normalized EPS of around $2.30, down about 14% and 34% from a year earlier. Susquehanna rates Qualcomm Neutral with a $185 target. In a sector preview, it said it generally expects modest upside to results and guidance.
The cost line matters more than any beat. Watch for two things in the December-quarter outlook: non-GAAP R&D and SG&A held near the third quarter’s $2.59 billion, and a disclosed headcount or restructuring charge. Together they would show the cuts reaching the income statement. If costs keep climbing, the cuts are reshaping teams without lowering the bill.
So what is Qualcomm stock actually worth?
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Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!
