San Diego-based Qualcomm saw its stock prices jump today after reporting higher-than-expected earnings for the second quarter of this year. The company may have smartphones to thank.
Qualcomm stock prices jumped almost $3 to $39.15 today. The spike came after the company announced it turned a $767 million profit in the second quarter of this year.
That’s $30 million more than the company made in the same quarter last year.
The company shipped a record 103 million cell phone chip sets during the quarter. Wireless industry analyst Chetan Sharma says the company’s new Snapdragon processor for smartphones and other mobile devices has also helped boost the bottom line.
“It’s one of the fastest processors out there in terms of the speed as well as, compared to some of the other processors it also consumes less power,” Sharma said.
Mobile devices like smartphones rely on small power supplies to run complex computer programs and are a growing part of the wireless industry.
“Smartphones is by far the biggest growth area for the mobile industry from a device perspective," Sharma said. "And it’s not only just the smartphones, but other devices like the iPad and the slates that will also be using processors like the Snapdragon.”
The company also increased its forecast for revenues and earnings per share for its current fiscal year.
Disclosure: Qualcomm is an underwriter for KPBS.
