SAN DIEGO — Chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. on Wednesday posted an 18 percent increase in fiscal first-quarter profit on strong demand for cell phones that surf the Internet and download music and video.
The world’s No. 2 maker of chips for cell phones also forecast results for the second quarter and the rest of the year roughly in line with analysts’ expectations. The news came against a backdrop of market assessments in recent days from industry heavyweights Motorola and Sprint Nextel Corp.
The results, released after markets closed, cheered investors. Qualcomm’s stock jumped 7.3 percent, or $2.67, to $39.30, after hours, after falling 29 cents during regular trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
After Motorola’s downbeat assessment of its handset division, investors were relieved that Qualcomm didn’t deliver bad news of its own, said Mark McKechnie, a securities analyst at American Technology Research in San Francisco.
“It looked like a pretty ho-hum report, but some people may have been expecting a disaster,” McKechnie said.
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