It's been a tumultuous few years for Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM). Its bid to take over peer NXP Semiconductors was blocked by China; there have been patent and licensing disputes with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) (which it resolved in 2019) and with Chinese tech titan Huawei (a new long-term agreement is still pending); and the trade war between the U.S. and China has been the source of frequent worry. Then there's the coronavirus. Tech researcher IDC thinks global smartphone sales could drop 12% in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
That's quite the laundry list of negative headwinds. It's no wonder Qualcomm stock is up just 37% in the last trailing five-year period, compared to a 177% return for the PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index. But Qualcomm could be in for a rebound in the next couple of years as a new era of mobility fueled by 5G gets underway.
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Source Fool.com