It's been a long and ugly road to recovery for the Android smartphone market, but leading mobile chip giant Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) is signaling that the recovery is finally here. The latest quarter that ended in September (for Qualcomm, the end of its 2023 fiscal year) had lingering issues, but things are looking up to kick off fiscal 2024 -- in spite of some ongoing worry about the health of smartphone demand. Here's what investors need to know when weighing whether or not this is a value stock worth buying.

Much like the bear market of 2022, 2023 is going down as another year worth forgetting -- at least for Qualcomm investors. After booming sales of smartphones during the pandemic, consumer electronics demand fell off a cliff starting in the second half of 2022. A hoped-for rebound never came in 2023.

The story was much the same in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 (the three months ended in September). Revenue was $8.63 billion, just above the midpoint of guidance, and a 24% year-over-year decline. Earnings per share (EPS) fell a whopping 48% from last year, and adjusted EPS fell 35% -- although adjusted EPS of $2.02 was actually above management's guidance.

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Source Fool.com