Qualcomm's China troubles dampen earnings

The chips giant has been struggling with a handful of problems in China, where it faces a government antimonopoly investigation and potential underreporting from licensees.

Qualcomm, a dominant player in mobile chips, posted 26 percent higher earnings for its latest quarter, but trailed market estimates after its licensing business again dragged on results.

For its fiscal fourth quarter, the company on Wednesday reported an adjusted profit of $1.26 a share on revenue of $6.69 billion, up 3 percent from a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected $1.31 a share and $7.02 billion.

Shares dropped 6 percent after hours to $72.60, as Qualcomm's guidance for the new year was also soft.

Qualcomm holds a leading position selling wireless processors and communication chips into major smartphones, including Apple's iPhone 6 and Samsung's Galaxy S5. The company now wants to expand into wearables, automotive and connected devices, making a big bet on those technologies with its $2.5 billion acquisition agreement last month for British chipmaker CSR. The deal, set to close next year, is expected to turn up the heat on chip rivals Broadcom, which has a big stake in connectivity chips, and Intel, which has struggled for years to break into the mobile space.

However, Qualcomm remains vulnerable in China, the biggest mobile phone market in the world. The company is facing an ongoing investigation by the Chinese government against Qualcomm's potential monopolistic practices there, which could result in the company being forced to accept lower royalty payments in its highly profitable licensing business. Additionally, the company revealed in July that it believed some Chinese licensees were under-reporting their sales, cutting into Qualcomm's royalty payments.

On Wednesday, Qualcomm reiterated some of its problems in China, again mentioning that the under-reporting was dragging down its estimates for its reported number of devices being shipped.

Overall, the company reported a profit of $1.9 billion, or $1.11 a share, for the quarter ended September 28, up from $1.5 billion, or 86 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted per-share earnings rose to $1.26 from $1.05.

The equipment and services segment, which includes chipset sales, posted 6.9 percent higher revenue at $4.8 billion during the quarter. Licensing revenue was down 4.9 percent to $1.9 billion.

For the new fiscal year, Qualcomm predicted adjusted earnings of $5.05 to $5.35 a share on revenue of $26.8 billion to $28.8 billion. Wall Street was looking for $5.58 a share and $28.9 billion.