QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) Raises Dividend to $0.89 Per Share

QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 21st, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, June 5th will be given a dividend of 0.89 per share by the wireless technology company on Thursday, June 26th. This represents a $3.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 5th. This is a 4.7% increase from QUALCOMM’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85.

QUALCOMM has increased its dividend payment by an average of 7.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 22 years. QUALCOMM has a payout ratio of 27.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect QUALCOMM to earn $9.86 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.5%.

QUALCOMM Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:QCOM opened at $138.74 on Wednesday. QUALCOMM has a fifty-two week low of $120.80 and a fifty-two week high of $230.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 1.99. The company has a market capitalization of $153.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $151.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $159.90.

QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The wireless technology company reported $2.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.93 by ($0.07). QUALCOMM had a return on equity of 39.51% and a net margin of 25.94%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that QUALCOMM will post 9.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other QUALCOMM news, CFO Akash J. Palkhiwala sold 269 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.10, for a total transaction of $35,265.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,728 shares in the company, valued at $7,568,140.80. The trade was a 0.46 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Alexander H. Rogers sold 19,287 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.83, for a total transaction of $3,275,511.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 20,762 shares in the company, valued at $3,526,010.46. The trade was a 48.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 30,666 shares of company stock valued at $5,047,052. 0.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On QUALCOMM

An institutional investor recently raised its position in QUALCOMM stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) by 116.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,356 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock after buying an additional 9,343 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in QUALCOMM were worth $2,666,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. 74.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on QCOM. Mizuho reduced their price target on QUALCOMM from $245.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of QUALCOMM from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays lowered their target price on QUALCOMM from $200.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of QUALCOMM in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their target price on QUALCOMM from $199.00 to $179.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $201.21.

About QUALCOMM

QUALCOMM Incorporated engages in the development and commercialization of foundational technologies for the wireless industry worldwide. It operates through three segments: Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT); Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL); and Qualcomm Strategic Initiatives (QSI). The QCT segment develops and supplies integrated circuits and system software based on 3G/4G/5G and other technologies for use in wireless voice and data communications, networking, computing, multimedia, and position location products.