Freedom Broker Downgrades Qualcomm to Hold, $185 Price Target

Freedom Broker analyst Egor Tolmachev downgraded Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) from Buy to Hold with a price target of $185 (from $200).

“FQ4’26 removed most of the uncertainties that have weighed on Qualcomm, but it also showed that the shift to new growth engines will cost more margin, for longer, than we had assumed.

Licensing renewals with Apple, Huawei, and Transsion secure QTL until the next renewal cycle in FY30, the Apple modem exit is fully reflected in management’s plan, and China Android has turned.

The growth engines are ahead of schedule: Automotive exits FY26 well ahead of plan, and Data Center revenue starts this quarter with shipments to two hyperscalers, on a designwin base now broad enough for us to underwrite management’s FY29 target.

The cost is margin.

Input-cost inflation is running ahead of price increases, custom silicon dilutes gross margin, and OPEX is rising to fund the data center roadmap, so gross margin recovers later than we expected and only to the low end of its historical range.

We therefore raise our revenue estimates but cut non-GAAP EPS by about 3% for FY27 and 8% for FY28.

With estimates moving lower and limited upside to our reduced $185 price target (from $200), we downgrade QCOM to Hold from Buy.”

This research note is reproduced verbatim from the issuing firm. Price Target never edits, paraphrases or alters analysts’ words — we only republish them in one place.