Qualcomm Stock Hit New High

Shares of Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) touched a new 52-week high of $59.80 on Monday, compared to its previous high of $59.43 on Feb. 18. Qualcomm has a market cap of $94.93 billion and is part of the technology sector and telecommunications industry.

The stock has been rising from $53.98 since Jan. 28. Qualcomm stock closed Monday's regular trading up 0.95 percent at $59.58 with a volume of 13.62 million shares, while in after-hours the stock fell 0.10 percent to $59.52 on the NASDAQ stock market. The stock had traded between $31.63 and $59.80 during the past 52-week.

Qualcomm engages in the development, design, manufacture, and marketing of digital wireless telecommunications products and services. The company pioneered the commercialization of the code-division multiple access (CDMA) technology used in digital wireless communications equipment and satellite ground stations mainly in North America.

Qualcomm has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 27.46, while price/earnings to growth (PEG ratio 5 year expected by Thomson Reuters) of 1.05. In comparison, Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) has a P/E ratio of 12.54 and PEG ratio of 1.78. PEG is a widely used indicator of a stock's potential value. It is favored by many over the price/earnings ratio as it also accounts for growth. Similar to the P/E ratio, a lower PEG means that the stock is more undervalued.

On Feb. 25, Bloomberg reported Qualcomm is betting that cereal boxes, washing machines and children’s books will help drive demand for powerful processors for mobile devices.

Qualcomm said earlier February that it will begin sending samples of more powerful versions of its Snapdragon mobile-phone processors to customers this year. Snapdragon competes with products from Marvell Technology Group Ltd., Nvidia Corp., Texas Instruments Inc. and Intel Corp. in the market for chips that run software in handsets such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

On Feb. 16, Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) said it inked a licensing agreement with Qualcomm to license factory-test technology. Qualcomm has granted Agilent a worldwide license to demonstrate and distribute products that are based on Qualcomm's technology for RF factory testing.

There is a natural synergy from working closely on manufacturing optimization with Qualcomm. With the recent introduction of Agilent's EXT wireless communications test set and leveraging our N7300A-Series chipset automation platform, we are empowering Qualcomm customers with best-in-class manufacturing test solutions earlier in the product and manufacturing cycle, said Joe Depond, GM, Agilent's Mobile Broadband Organization.

On Jan. 26, the company guided its first quarter adjusted earnings of 77 cents to 81 cents a share and revenue of $3.45 billion to $3.75 billion, while Street predicted 68 cents a share on revenue of $3.12 billion. Recently, analysts revised its prediction for the quarter to 80 cents a share on revenue of $3.63 billion.

The San Diego, California-based Qualcomm increased its full year 2011 adjusted earnings outlook to range of $2.91 to $3.05 a share from previous forecast of $2.63 to $2.77 a share. The company raised its 2011 revenue guidance to range of $13.6 billion to $14.2 billion from previous range of $12.4 billion to $13.0 billion. Street predicted earnings of $2.78 a share on revenue of $12.78 billion on Jan. 26. Recently, analysts revised its prediction for the full year to $3.06 a share on revenue of $13.96 billion.