Dividend.com: Qualcomm's Quandary

Genworth Financial Suspends Dividend, Buyback and 2008 Full-Year Outlook

In a move that had been anticipated for months, life and mortgage insurance company Genworth Financial(GNW Quote) suspended its annual dividend amid a net loss of $258 million in its third-quarter earnings report.

The company also suspended its share-buyback program, as well as its previously announced 2008 full-year outlook projections.

Genworth stock has seen extreme volatility lately, bouncing around from $15 to $10, back to $15, to under $5 in a little more than two-week span back in September. We recommend that investors steer clear of this stock for obvious reasons.

Because of the company's dividend suspension, we will be dropping coverage of Genworth Financial.

Qualcomm Profits Drop on Bad Investments

Qualcomm(QCOM Quote) reported late Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit dropped 22% to $878 million, or 52 cents a share, in the three-month period ended Sept. 28, down from $1.13 billion, or 67 cents a share, the same period last year.

The company cited losses on financial investments accounted for much of the decline. Management also warned of a sharp slowdown in business, highlighted by lighter demand for its chips that power many of the world's mobile phones.

As for the company's next-quarter outlook, the company sees its first-quarter profit coming in between 46 cents and 50 cents a share, and revenue of $2.3 billion to $2.5 billion. That is below the analyst estimate of 61 cents a share and revenue estimate of $2.91 billion.

We had removed shares of Qualcomm from our "Recommended" list back on Sept. 25 when the stock traded at $46.54. The company has a dividend yield of 1.94%, based on last night's closing stock price of $33.05. The profit drop due to financial investment losses has been part of a bad trend affecting many large corporations. We would let the shares stabilize a bit before thinking of any long-term positions.

Qualcomm is not recommended at this time, holding a Dividend.com Rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars.

Windstream Third-Quarter Profits Fall 10% as Phone Customers Dwindle

Telecom provider Windstream(WIN Quote) reported its third quarter results early Friday, saying that profits fell 10% from the year-ago period.

The company's EPS came in at 25 cents, a penny shy of analysts' estimates. Windstream's revenue also declined 3% to $794.1 million, below expectations of $802 million.

The company's phone line subscriptions are down 4.8% from last year, now sitting at 3.08 million access lines. This decline was partially offset by a 16% jump in high-speed Internet subscribers.