Friday, 26 March 2010 15:59
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog piece where I accused QCOM of "sandbagging" so they could deploy a subtantial sum of their cash hoard to buy back stock on the cheap. Less than three weeks later, the company announced yesterday that revenues and earnings would surpass previously set guidance. Qualcomm's new guidance is for quarterly revenues between $2.55 and $2.65 billion (up from a range of $2.4 to $2.6 billion) and earnings of $.56 to $.58 cents per share (up from the consensus of $.53 cents). The stock rose as much as 7% on the news and is now some 15% higher than the price we paid when we bought more shares in early February. Sandbagging indeed.
And Oracle reported better than expected numbers yesterday, with $.38 cent earnings one penny ahead of the consensus. Importantly, Oracle's new licensing revenues rose 13% in the quarter, ahead of the company's guidance for 9% growth. The company maintained guidance for its fiscal fourth quarter and added that the integration of Sun Micro is moving ahead of expectations. Oracle shares are selling near a nine-year high.