Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM)

Financial Reporting Quality: Aggregate Accruals

Difficulty: Advanced

Earnings can be decomposed into cash and accrual components. The accrual component (aggregate accruals) has been found to have less persistence than the cash component, and therefore (1) earnings with higher accrual component are less persistent than earnings with smaller accrual component, all else equal; and (2) the cash component of earnings should receive a higher weighting evaluating company performance.

Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio
Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio

Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio

Qualcomm Inc., balance sheet computation of aggregate accruals

USD $ in millions

		Sep 30, 2018	Sep 24, 2017	Sep 25, 2016	Sep 27, 2015	Sep 28, 2014	Sep 29, 2013
	Operating Assets
	Total assets
	Less: Cash and cash equivalents
	Less: Marketable securities
	Operating assets
	Operating Liabilities
	Total liabilities
	Less: Short-term debt
	Less: Long-term debt
	Operating liabilities

	Net operating assets¹
	Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals²
	Ratio
	Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio³
	Benchmarks
	Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Competitors
	Apple Inc.
	Applied Materials Inc.
	Broadcom Inc.
	Cisco Systems Inc.
	HP Inc.
	Intel Corp.
	NVIDIA Corp.
	Texas Instruments Inc.
	Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Sector
	Technology Hardware & Equipment
	Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Industry
	Technology

Based on: 10-K (filing date: 2018-11-07), 10-K (filing date: 2017-11-01), 10-K (filing date: 2016-11-02), 10-K (filing date: 2015-11-04), 10-K (filing date: 2014-11-05), 10-K (filing date: 2013-11-06).

2018 Calculations

¹ Net operating assets = Operating assets – Operating liabilities
= hidden – hidden = hidden

² Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals = Net operating assets ₂₀₁₈ – Net operating assets ₂₀₁₇
= hidden – hidden = hidden

³ Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio = 100 × Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals ÷ Avg. net operating assets
= 100 × hidden ÷ [( hidden + hidden ) ÷ 2] = hidden

Ratio	Description	The company
Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio	Ratio is found by dividing balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals by average net operating assets.	Using the balance-sheet-based accruals ratio, Qualcomm Inc. deteriorated earnings quality from 2017 to 2018.

Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio

Qualcomm Inc., cash flow statement computation of aggregate accruals

USD $ in millions

		Sep 30, 2018	Sep 24, 2017	Sep 25, 2016	Sep 27, 2015	Sep 28, 2014	Sep 29, 2013
	Net income (loss) attributable to Qualcomm
	Less: Net cash provided by operating activities
	Less: Net cash (used) provided by investing activities
	Cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals
	Ratio
	Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio¹
	Benchmarks
	Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Competitors
	Apple Inc.
	Applied Materials Inc.
	Broadcom Inc.
	Cisco Systems Inc.
	HP Inc.
	Intel Corp.
	NVIDIA Corp.
	Texas Instruments Inc.
	Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Sector
	Technology Hardware & Equipment
	Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Industry
	Technology

2018 Calculations

¹ Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio = 100 × Cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals ÷ Avg. net operating assets
= 100 × hidden ÷ [( hidden + hidden ) ÷ 2] = hidden

Ratio	Description	The company
Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio	Ratio is found by dividing cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals by average net operating assets.	Using the cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio, Qualcomm Inc. deteriorated earnings quality from 2017 to 2018.

	Qualcomm Inc.	Other companies (not purchased previously)
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Relative Valuation
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Valuation
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Long-term Trends
Analysis
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Financial Statements
Common-Size Financial Statements
Ratios
Relative Valuation
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Valuation
Economic Value Added (EVA)
Long-term Trends
Analysis
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