Qualcomm posts record quarterly revenue for Q3; raises outlook

Qualcomm reported fiscal third quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday, hitting targets in some spots and bypassing them altogether elsewhere.

The mobile chip maker reported a net income of $1.58 billion with earnings of 90 cents per share (statement). Non-GAAP earnings were $1.03 per share on a revenue of $6.24 billion.

Wall Street was looking for earnings of $1.03 per share on a revenue of $6.05 billion.

Described by Qualcomm as "record quarterly revenues," that's up 35 percent annually and two percent sequentially.

Immediately after the report hit the wires, Qualcomm shares were up by approximately four percent in after-hours trading.

Highlighting the Snapdragon brand in particular, CEO Paul Jacobs reflected on the stellar quarter in prepared remarks:

We delivered another strong quarter as our Qualcomm Snapdragon solutions were prominent in a broad set of flagship smartphones, and 3G/4G device average selling prices were stronger than expected. We also focused on return of capital to stockholders and increased our stock repurchases and dividends paid during the quarter. This quarter, we continued our technology leadership, with our Snapdragon 800 processor powering the world's first LTE-Advanced smartphone. We see expanding opportunities for growth of 3G/4G devices around the globe, driven by the strong pace of innovation in the industry.

To get a better idea of how Qualcomm's solutions did, the company shipped 172 million units of MSM chips during the third quarter. While that's down by one percent on a quarterly basis, it's still up 22 percent year-over-year.

Total reported devices sales for the March quarter rang up to approximately $56.5 billion, up 18 percent annually and down eight percent sequentially.

It is also estimated that there were roughly 244 to 248 million units of 3G/4G devices shipped during the same three month time frame, with an average price ranging between $227 and $233 per unit.

For the fiscal fourth quarter, Wall Street expects Qualcomm to deliver earnings of $1.08 per share on a revenue of $6.31 billion.

Following up Q3 success, Qualcomm said it is raising its outlook, projecting its Q4 revenue to fall within the range of $5.9 billion to $6.6 billion. Non-GAAP earnings are expected to fall between $1.02 and $1.10 per share.

For fiscal 2013, Qualcomm is expecting revenue to fall between $24.3 billion and $25 billion with non-GAAP earnings of $4.48 to $4.56 per share.