Qualcomm 10-K: FY26 Revenue $43.1B, Net Income $13.6B on $5.7B Tax Benefit
QCOM sits 36% above its 52-week low of $121.99.
Summary
Qualcomm's fiscal 2026 revenue fell 3% to $43.1B while net income rose 146% to $13.6B, driven by a $5.7B tax valuation-allowance release rather than operations. Handset weakness was partly offset by record automotive revenue of $6.0B, up 52%.
Key Events · Earnings and Guidance · QCOM
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FY26 Revenue Falls 3% to $43.1B
Full-year revenue was $43,120M versus $44,284M, with QCT down 3% on lower handset chipset shipments and QTL roughly flat at $5,556M.
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$5.7B Tax Benefit Lifts Net Income
Release of a federal deferred tax asset valuation allowance produced a $5,781M benefit and a negative 45% effective tax rate, taking net income to $13,628M from $5,541M; operating income actually fell to $8,658M from $12,355M.
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Automotive Offsets Handset Decline
QCT automotive revenue reached a record $6,004M, up from $3,957M, while handsets fell to $24,072M from $27,793M and IoT rose to $7,132M from $6,617M.
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Capital Return and Buyback Capacity
Fiscal 2026 repurchases totaled $7,817M at an average $161.96 plus $3,854M of dividends; $19.6 billion remained authorized under the repurchase program at September 27, 2026.
Analysis · QCOM · Manufacturing
The annual report puts hard full-year numbers behind the Q4 release: revenue fell 3% to $43.1B as handsets dropped to $24.1B, but net income jumped 146% to $13.6B almost entirely because Qualcomm released a $5.7 billion valuation allowance on its federal deferred tax assets after IRS Notice 2026-07 removed the expected corporate alternative minimum tax hit. Strip that out and operating income fell to $8.66B from $12.36B, with gross margin down to 53% from 55% and R&D up $1.2B. The offset is diversification: automotive reached $6.0B for the year, up 52%, and management flags data center revenue ramping in fiscal 2027 under the custom silicon agreements. Cash generation still covered $7.8B of buybacks and $3.9B of dividends, leaving $19.6B of repurchase authorization, but the balance sheet now carries $15.1B of debt against $7.7B of cash and securities, and purchase obligations of $18.6B — $13.8B due within 12 months — are a real call on liquidity if handset demand keeps sliding.
How filings like this one have moved
In the 30 days to Nov 5, 2026, 33.4% of the 2397 measured filings Wiseek scored 7 moved their stock by 5% or more by the next session's close. The median move was 0.00%. These are measured outcomes after filings of this importance, not a forecast for this one.
Measured one observation per ticker per day, after exclusions. Current figures: Filing Impact Tracker · open dataset
At the time of this filing, QCOM was trading at $165.33 on NASDAQ in the Manufacturing sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $184.9B. The 52-week trading range was $121.99 to $259.92. This filing was assessed with neutral market sentiment and an importance score of 7 out of 10.