Qualcomm has slightly lowered its market outlook for this year, saying it expects sales to be weighted towards the fourth quarter. It now expects around 905 million 3G/4G devices to be shipped this calendar year, down from an estimate three months ago of 915 million. It also narrowed guidance for its own revenues in the fiscal year to 30 September, to USD 18.7-19.1 billion, versus an earlier outlook of USD 18.7-19.7 billion. Revenues for fiscal Q4 are forecast flat sequentially and up 8-18 percent from a year earlier to USD 4.45-4.85 billion. In fiscal Q3, Qualcomm reported sales of USD 4.63 billion, up 28 percent year-over-year and down 6 percent sequentially. Operating profit rose 24 percent from a year ago to USD 1.38 billion, and EPS improved 13 percent to USD 0.69. Both sales and EPS were in the mid range of its earlier guidance. Qualcomm forecast Q4 EPS flat to slightly higher year-on-year, at USD 0.62-0.68, while the full-year range was narrowed to the low end, at USD 3.41-3.47. Qualcomm said it still expects a strong calendar Q4 due to holiday demand, and the company is ramping up supply of its 28nm chipsets in order to meet the expected increase in sales.
