Ahead of the Bell: Qualcomm price target raised

Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Ittai Kidron raised his price target to $56 from $52 and kept and "Outperform" rating. The new target implies he expects the stock to rise about 24 percent above Thursday's $45 close.

San Diego-based Qualcomm makes semiconductors for wireless products.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. and iPhone maker Apple Inc. are becoming more competitive in their quest to produce the next big communications gadget. So-called smart phones allow users to access e-mail and a host of other Internet features in real time.

The intense competition between the two could boost fiscal 2009 earnings by 17 cents to 19 cents per share, Kidron said.

Apple is likely to ship 15 million iPhones in fiscal 2009, nearly all of which should use 3G technology that uses Qualcomm's products, he said.

Kidron expects 2008 earnings of $2.13 per share and 2009 earnings of $2.42 per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect, on average, earnings of $2.11 per share and $2.39 per share, respectively.

Shares rose 20 cents to $45.20 in premarket trading Friday, after closing Thursday at $45.