William E. Keitel
Analyst · Montreal
Thank you, Steve, and good afternoon, everyone. We have strong financial results to report to you again today. Fiscal fourth quarter revenues were a record $4.1 billion, up 39% year-over-year, and non-GAAP operating income grew 44% year-over-year. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $0.80, up 18% year-over-year. QCT fiscal fourth quarter revenues reached a new record, growing 39% year-over-year on the strength of record MSM shipments, reflecting strong demand for our integrated Snapdragon chipsets for the growing smartphone segment, as well as a full quarter of Atheros revenues. QTL revenues grew 48% year-over-year, and total reported device sales by our licensees were approximately $39.1 billion for the fourth fiscal quarter, up 38% year-over-year driven by strength in both emerging and developed regions. We estimate that approximately 187 million to 191 million subscriber units were shipped by our licensees in the June quarter at an average selling price of approximately $204 to $210. We continue to see handset ASP strength across both emerging and developed regions, as well as increasing breadth of connected devices. We paid $361 million in cash dividends this quarter. And in response to the volatility and declining global stock markets, we engaged in $827 million of activity related to our stock repurchase program. During the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011 and to date through fiscal 2012, we have repurchased $241 million of our common stock and sold 3 put options that will expire at different times in the latter half of fiscal 2012 when we expect to have higher domestic cash balances. If these puts are exercised, we will repurchase approximately $511 million of our common stock, net of option premiums, at an average net price of $43.30 per share. Whether or not the puts are exercised, we will retain $75 million of cash premiums and therefore believe our stockholders will benefit in either case. Turning to our results for the full fiscal 2011 year. Revenues were a record $15 billion, up 36% year-over-year, reflecting strong execution by our QTL and QCT businesses and continued smartphone adoption and 2G to 3G migration. GAAP earnings were a record $2.52 per share, up 29% year-over-year. Record non-GAAP operating income was more than $6 billion, up 41% year-over-year, and non-GAAP earnings per share were a record $3.20, up 30% year-over-year. QCT's fiscal 2011 revenues were a record and grew 32% year-over-year with an operating margin of 23%, consistent with our original guidance range at the outset of the fiscal year. QCT's operating income grew 21% year-over-year. QTL's fiscal 2011 revenues were a record, up 48% year-over-year, and the operating margin improved to 88% of revenue. We estimate that the fiscal 2011 device average selling price, as reported by our licensees, was approximately $203 to $209 above our initial expectations at the outset of this year, reflecting strong adoption of smartphones around the globe. We are reaffirming our 775 million-unit midpoint estimate for calendar 2011 CDMA-based device shipments up approximately 18% year-over-year. Now turning to next year. We've incorporated in our forecast the most recent consensus worldwide economic forecast, which takes into account the serious concerns for Europe and very low GDP growth in the U.S. We estimate calendar 2012 CDMA-based device shipments will grow approximately 12% to 21% year-over-year. We anticipate fiscal 2012 revenues to be in the range of approximately $18 billion to $19 billion, up approximately 24% year-over-year at the midpoint. We expect our non-GAAP operating income to be in the range of approximately $6.7 billion to $7.2 billion, an increase of approximately 14% at the midpoint. We expect fiscal 2012 non-GAAP earnings per share to be in the range of $3.42 to $3.62, an increase of approximately 10% year-over-year at the midpoint. We expect that the acquisitions that Steve just mentioned will be modestly dilutive to fiscal 2012 non-GAAP earnings per share, and this has been included in our guidance. As a reminder, we do not include estimates for realized investment gains or losses on our cash and marketable securities portfolio unless such gains or losses are reasonably certain, which, in turn, impacts the year-over-year earnings per share growth comparison. We expect QTL operating margins to be in the range of 86% to 88% for fiscal 2012. For the QCT segment, as Steve mentioned, we expect strong year-over-year growth in revenue and operating income, leveraging the fiscal 2011 strategy, which we think has been successfully executed. We expect QCT operating margins to be approximately 20% to 22% for fiscal 2012. We estimate that the fiscal 2012 device ASP reported to us by our licensees for the QTL business will be approximately $197 to $209, reflecting continued adoption of smartphones at multiple tiers around the globe and a greater percentage of total device volume coming from lower-priced regions such as China and India. We anticipate that non-GAAP R&D and SG&A combined expenses will grow approximately 15% year-over-year, plus or minus a couple of points, and driven primarily by growth in R&D expense and a full year of Atheros. We expect our non-GAAP tax rate for fiscal 2012 to be approximately 18% to 19% and our GAAP tax rate to be approximately 18%. Turning to the first quarter of fiscal 2012. We estimate revenues to be approximately $4.35 billion to $4.75 billion, an increase of 36% year-over-year at the midpoint. We expect fiscal first quarter non-GAAP operating income to be approximately $1.67 billion to $1.8 billion, an increase of 23% year-over-year at the midpoint. We anticipate that non-GAAP earnings per share will be approximately $0.86 to $0.92, an increase of 9% year-over-year at the midpoint. This estimate includes shipments of approximately 146 million to 154 million MSM chipsets during the December quarter, reflecting strong sequential growth and successful execution on QCT's strategy. We expect total reported device sales of approximately $37.5 billion to $41.5 billion by our licensees for shipments in the September quarter, up 16% year-over-year at the midpoint, reflecting strong handset volume growth expected in emerging and developed regions, as well as increased non-handset device shipments. We expect a small build in the CDMA channel inventory in the December quarter, as is typical for the holiday season, and we estimate that CDMA inventory channel will remain at the low end of the historic 15- to 20-week band throughout the remainder of fiscal 2012. We expect a modest sequential increase in non-GAAP R&D and SG&A combined expenses, and we expect our non-GAAP tax rate for the first fiscal quarter to be approximately 18% to 19%. We look forward to seeing you in New York for our Analyst Day meeting on November 16 where we will share additional data points regarding our fiscal 2012 guidance. In the meantime, the Qualcomm Investor Relations website includes a thorough slide presentation on the data points included on today's call. That concludes my comments. I will now turn the call back to Warren Kneeshaw.