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Clouds Over Qualcomm

Scott Moritz

Updated from 4:25 p.m.

Qualcomm (QCOM Quote) offered investors a dash of mixed results for the fiscal first quarter ended last month.

The wireless tech titan posted a net income of $620 million, or 36 cents a share. Excluding one-time items, the adjusted profit for the fiscal first quarter was $663 million, or 39 cents a share, on $1.74 billion in revenue.

Those numbers compare with an adjusted profit of 28 cents on $1.39 billion in revenue in the year-ago period.

The 39-cent profit in the fiscal first quarter beat analysts' expections for 38 cents, but sales were slightly below the $1.76 billion the Street was looking for, according to Reuters Research.

Looking ahead, Qualcomm says it expects a fiscal second-quarter profit of 36 cents on revenue of about $1.68 billion. While the net income is in line with analysts' expectations, the top line is below the $1.73 billion consensus.

Qualcomm fans say they see a familiar pattern here.

"Qualcomm does this every quarter -- they give guidance, then raise guidance mid-quarter, then beat the revised guidance," says Sanford Bernstein analyst Paul Sagawa.

Overall, says Sagawa, who has a buy rating on the stock, "the numbers were fine -- maybe a little pricing pressure on their chipset business, but that was offset by an upside in royalty collections."

Qualcomm shares fell 83 cents to $46.75 in after-hours trading Wednesday.