Qualcomm's outlook falls short; CEO cites 'challenging' mobile phone market
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Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) shares fell as much as 4% in after-hours trading Wednesday as the communications chipmaker gave a weaker-than-expected third-quarter earnings forecast and Chief Executive Cristiano Amon said the company was still navigating a "challenging environment" for its business lines.
After U.S. stock markets closed, Qualcomm (QCOM) said that it expects its third-quarter earnings, excluding one-time items, to be in a range of $1.70 to $1.90 a share, on revenue between $8.1B and $8.9B. Wall Street analysts had previously forecast Qualcomm (QCOM) to earn $2.13 a share on sales of $9.12B.
Qualcomm (QCOM) has said it is working to broaden its customer base, and that it expects to significantly reduce its business with Apple (AAPL) through the rest of this year.
In a statement with its third-quarter forecast, Qualcomm (QCOM) said it is continuing to see the impact of several factors on in business, including "macroeconomic headwinds, weaker global handset units, and channel inventory drawdown." Additionally, Qualcomm (QCOM) said it expects to see "a larger-than-normal" sequential decline in revenue for its QCT division, which includes most of the company's mobile-phone chipsets and other mobile device products.
"Our top priority remains to execute our diversification strategy and invest in areas that drive long-term value," Amon said, in a statement.
During its fiscal second quarter, Qualcomm (QCOM) reported earnings, excluding one-time items, of $2.15 a share, on revenue of $9.27B. QCT made up the wide majority of Qualcomm's (QCOM) quarterly revenue, with sales of $7.9B. 
Qualcomm's (QCOM) results topped the estimates of Wall Street analysts, who forecast the company to earn $2.16 a share, excluding one-time items, on $9.12B in revenue.
However, while Qualcomm (QCOM) did better than analysts had expected, its results showed business not being able to perform better on a year-over-year basis. 
During is 2022 fiscal second-quarter, Qualcomm (QCOM) earned $3.21 a share, excluding one-time items, on revenue of $11.16B.
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