Traders Buy Large Volume of Qualcomm Call Options (NASDAQ:QCOM)

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders bought 161,180 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 29% compared to the average daily volume of 124,834 call options.

Qualcomm Price Performance

QCOM opened at $189.39 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $201.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $167.84. Qualcomm has a fifty-two week low of $121.99 and a fifty-two week high of $259.92. The firm has a market cap of $199.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 25.46 and a beta of 1.59.

Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The wireless technology company reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.56 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $10.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.59 billion. Qualcomm had a return on equity of 42.11% and a net margin of 22.31%.Qualcomm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.85 earnings per share. Qualcomm has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 2.100-2.300 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Qualcomm will post 7.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Qualcomm announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, March 17th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the wireless technology company to repurchase up to 14.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Qualcomm Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 4th were paid a $0.92 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 4th. This is a positive change from Qualcomm’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.89. This represents a $3.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Qualcomm’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

QCOM has been the topic of a number of research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Qualcomm from $140.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Qualcomm from $190.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $220.00 target price on Qualcomm and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird set a $300.00 target price on Qualcomm in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Roth Mkm began coverage on Qualcomm in a research report on Friday, May 8th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, twenty have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Qualcomm currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $218.03.

Key Headlines Impacting Qualcomm

Here are the key news stories impacting Qualcomm this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Qualcomm raised its fiscal 2029 non-handset revenue target to $40 billion from $22 billion and said its data center business could exceed $15 billion by 2029, reinforcing the company’s push beyond smartphone chips.
• Positive Sentiment: The company said Meta and Microsoft are early customers for its data center CPUs, giving investors outside validation for Qualcomm’s AI infrastructure strategy and helping the market see a clearer growth path.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts turned more bullish after the update, with multiple firms raising price targets and DZ Bank upgrading Qualcomm from hold to buy, suggesting Wall Street is warming to the diversification story.
• Positive Sentiment: Qualcomm also announced a $3.9 billion acquisition of Modular, which should strengthen its AI software stack and improve its ability to compete in cloud and edge AI workloads.
• Neutral Sentiment: Commentary pieces from outlets like Seeking Alpha and 247WallSt argue the market may still be misunderstanding Qualcomm’s AI pivot, but these are opinion-driven and less directly market-moving.
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the upbeat guidance, investors may still worry that much of the promised AI chip revenue is years away and that execution risk remains high, especially as Qualcomm transitions away from its handset-heavy mix.

Insider Activity

In other Qualcomm news, EVP Heather S. Ace sold 3,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.82, for a total transaction of $569,024.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,065,677.70. The trade was a 7.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Cristiano R. Amon sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total value of $1,800,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 197,568 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,562,240. This trade represents a 4.82% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 21,806 shares of company stock worth $3,928,958 in the last ninety days. 0.05% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Qualcomm

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Qualcomm by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 114,144,068 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock valued at $19,524,350,000 after purchasing an additional 647,076 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Qualcomm by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 28,897,079 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock valued at $4,931,968,000 after purchasing an additional 3,221,924 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Qualcomm by 34.5% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,727,862 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock valued at $2,861,301,000 after purchasing an additional 4,290,622 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Qualcomm during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,591,056,000. Finally, Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Qualcomm by 9.9% during the third quarter. Amundi now owns 12,671,635 shares of the wireless technology company’s stock valued at $2,136,486,000 after buying an additional 1,138,541 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.35% of the company’s stock.

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm Incorporated is a global semiconductor and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in San Diego, California. Founded in 1985, the company is known for its development of wireless technologies and for playing a central role in the evolution of digital cellular standards, including CDMA and subsequent generations of mobile standards. Qualcomm’s business combines the design and sale of semiconductor products with a patent licensing program for wireless technologies and related intellectual property.

The company’s product portfolio includes system-on-chip (SoC) platforms marketed under the Snapdragon brand, cellular modem and RF front-end components, connectivity solutions for Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth, and processors and platforms aimed at automotive, IoT, networking and edge-computing applications.