SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. said its earnings rose 35 percent in the fourth quarter, but the mobile chipmaker’s forecasts for 2005 fell below Wall Street’s expectations.
The San Diego-based firm reported net income of $393 million, or 23 cents a share, during the quarter. Qualcomm reported $291 million, or 18 cents a share, last year.
Revenue rose 28 percent to $1.1 billion during the period. But revenue dropped 17 percent from the third quarter due to a change in royalty accounting, which now recognizes royalty revenue based solely on reports received from licensees, the company announced last month.
The continuing success of camera phones with color screens is credited with the increase in income. Qualcomm licensees reported selling 41 million CDMA phones during the quarter compared with 23 million during the same time last year.
However, Qualcomm said it anticipated first-quarter 2005 profits of 23 cents to 25 cents a share, significantly less than the 31-cent forecasts by Wall Street analysts. Its projections for the year were more in line with Wall Street; Qualcomm said it anticipated a profit of $1.12 to $1.16 in contrast with analysts’ projections of $1.21.
The company said it had been struggling to feed an increasing demand for phones for most of the year. As supply finally caught up-particularly in South Korea-shipments slowed, the company said, leading to fewer shipments than the 46 million units Qualcomm had projected.
