What's priced into QUALCOMM Incorporated?
What do you have to believe to make money in QUALCOMM Incorporated at $165? The stock trades at 18.8x trailing earnings and the Street expects about 30% growth a year. The question is where do we go from here?
Growth down the side, exit multiple across the top, your five-year annualized return in each cell.
The expectations grid · 5-year annualized return
| EPS growth ↓ · Exit multiple → | 9.4x −50% | 14.1x −25% | 18.8x today | 23.5x +25% | 17.2x 5y median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| −15% (decline) | −26% | −20% | −15% | −11% | −16% |
| 0% (no growth) | −13% | −6% | +0% | +5% | −2% |
| 15% (half) | +0% | +8% | +15% | +20% | +13% |
| 30% (Street consensus) | +13% | +23% | +30% | +36% | +28% |
| 37% (beat) | +19% | +30% | +37% | +44% | +35% |
| 45% (big beat) | +26% | +37% | +45% | +51% | +42% |
“Qualcomm took a $5.7B tax charge in one quarter and released the same $5.7B four quarters later, which produced a reported loss and then a reported wind…”
From our QCOM write-up.
Read the QCOM write-up →Method. Trailing diluted EPS of $8.78 (price $164.78 ÷ 18.8x trailing P/E; data from Financial Modeling Prep, August 28, 2026). Exit multiples are anchored to the stock itself: 50% and 25% below today's multiple, today's, 25% above, and its own five-fiscal-year median of 17.2x. Growth rows are anchored to the Street’s forward consensus: a decline at half the center rate, zero, half, the center, 25% above, and 50% above. Cell shading scales with the return, green positive, red negative. Each cell: EPS compounds at the row's rate for five years, the stock is valued at the column's multiple in year five, and the result is the annualized return against today's price. Dividends and buybacks excluded. An illustrative surface, not a forecast and not a call.