QCOM Earnings History: 87.5% Beat Rate and What Actually Happens After

QUALCOMM reports next on April 29, 2026, 22 days out. With 16 quarters of earnings data on record, the patterns are clear enough to trade around. Before you size up a position, here is what the numbers actually show.

The Beat Rate

QCOM beats earnings estimates 87.5% of the time. That is 14 beats out of 16 quarters. For a large-cap semiconductor name with dense institutional coverage and a mature analyst base, that level of consistency is not common.

Only two misses in four years. The bar gets set, and QCOM clears it almost every time. That alone makes it one of the more reliable earnings names in the sector.

What Happens After a Beat

The beat rate sounds bullish. The next-day price action is not.

After a QCOM earnings beat, the stock moves up the following day just 21.4% of the time. The average next-day move after a beat is -2.49%. QCOM delivers a strong quarter, and the stock still drops more often than not.

This is the core tension in trading QCOM through the print. The market prices in a beat before the number hits, then sells into the confirmation. It is not a fluke. It is the dominant pattern.

The Pattern

Three things stand out from the 16-quarter dataset.

First, the sell-the-news dynamic is not occasional for QCOM. It is the baseline. Expecting a beat to drive the stock higher is betting against the historical record.

Second, the miss scenario is binary and clean. After a miss, QCOM falls 100% of the time. No exceptions across the full sample. That is not a trend. That is a rule.

Third, the -2.49% average post-beat move is shallow but consistent. It tells you where the market tends to resolve after a positive surprise, and that number has real implications for anyone structuring options around the event.

What This Means for Traders

Do not buy calls expecting a pop off the beat. With a 21.4% probability of a green next-day close after a beat, you are fighting the tape. The odds favor a red day even on a strong quarter, and the historical record backs that up across 14 beats.

Anchor your options structure to the -2.49% average post-beat move. If you are selling premium into April 29, that average is your reference point for where the stock tends to land. If you are buying defined-risk, size the wings to reflect realistic resolution, not the outlier scenario.

Respect the miss case more than the beat case. A 100% down-day rate after a miss is one of the cleanest signals in earnings research. There is no historical counterexample in the QCOM dataset. All of these numbers are sourced directly from ChartOdds QCOM earnings history, built from 16 quarters of reported data.