QCOM vs. AAPL, AMD, AVGO, CLFD, GOOGL, INTC, META, MSFT, MU, and NVDA
Should you be buying QUALCOMM stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of QUALCOMM include Apple (AAPL), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Broadcom (AVGO), Clearfield (CLFD), Alphabet (GOOGL), Intel (INTC), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Micron Technology (MU), and NVIDIA (NVDA). These companies are all part of the "computer and technology" sector.
QUALCOMM vs. Its Competitors
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and media sentiment.
QUALCOMM has a net margin of 26.77% compared to Apple's net margin of 24.30%. Apple's return on equity of 170.91% beat QUALCOMM's return on equity.
Apple currently has a consensus price target of $240.80, suggesting a potential upside of 2.88%. QUALCOMM has a consensus price target of $182.82, suggesting a potential upside of 12.97%. Given QUALCOMM's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe QUALCOMM is more favorable than Apple.
In the previous week, Apple had 271 more articles in the media than QUALCOMM. MarketBeat recorded 336 mentions for Apple and 65 mentions for QUALCOMM. QUALCOMM's average media sentiment score of 1.20 beat Apple's score of 0.84 indicating that QUALCOMM is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Apple pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. QUALCOMM pays an annual dividend of $3.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Apple pays out 15.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. QUALCOMM pays out 34.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Apple has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years and QUALCOMM has raised its dividend for 23 consecutive years. QUALCOMM is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Apple has a beta of 1.11, suggesting that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, QUALCOMM has a beta of 1.21, suggesting that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Apple has higher revenue and earnings than QUALCOMM. QUALCOMM is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Apple, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
67.7% of Apple shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.4% of QUALCOMM shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Apple shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of QUALCOMM shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
Apple beats QUALCOMM on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding QCOM and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
QUALCOMM Competitors List
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This page (NASDAQ:QCOM) was last updated on 9/13/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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