cristiano amon president and ceo of qualcomm incorporated speaks during an interview with cnbc on the floor of the new york stock exchange nyse in new york april 28 2022 shares of chipmaker qualcomm fell more than 8 thursday a day after the company reported weak firstquarter guidance and said it started a hiring freeze in the current quarter qualcomm reported fourthquarter earnings that were in line with analyst estimates of 313 per share on an adjusted basis and a small revenue beat of an adjusted 1139 billion compared to the 1137 billion analysts anticipated according to refinitiv but the company called for fiscal firstquarter adjusted earnings of 225 to 245 per share on 92 billion to 10 billion in revenue analysts polled by refinitiv had expected earnings per share of 342 and revenue of 1202 billion the rapid deterioration in demand and easing of supply constraints across the semiconductor industry have resulted in elevated channel inventory the company said in the report ceo cristiano amon stressed on the companys earnings call that the company is looking at a temporary cyclical inventory drawdown in notes to clients after the report several analysts seemed to agree that qualcomm would make it to the other side of the headwinds in a solid position despite the cyclical slowdown we believe qualcomm management is executing on its diversification growth strategy and we anticipate qualcomm is likely to post healthy growth trends once the inventory correction is complete canaccord genuity analysts wrote maintaining a buy rating on the stock and lowering its price target from 225 to 165 piper sandler analysts maintained an overweight rating but cut their price target from 185 to 145 saying they see the drawdowns as limited to the december and march quarters keybanc capital markets analysts also maintained an overweight rating but cut their price target from 170 to 150 saying they view qualcomms results as disappointing but see favorable riskreward with forward ests derisked cnbcs ashley capoot and jordan novet contributed to this report watch chipmaking nations such as the us are teaming up against china