UPDATE: Goldman Sachs Reiterates Buy Rating, Lowers PT for Qualcomm

In a report published earlier today, the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. reiterated its Buy rating for Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), but lowered its price target from $76.00 to $71.00.

Goldman Sachs went on to say “Negative datapoints over the last couple of weeks, including preannouncements from RIM, HTC, and Nokia, and weaker shipments at Huawei and ZTE, point to weaker handset demand, in particular in Europe. That's not surprising, as our analysis shows that handset growth is 80% correlated to global GDP. The macro weakness has been compounded by the pause ahead of the iPhone launch, and a tougher stance on subsidies and upgrade cycles by carriers in N. America and Europe.”

Qualcomm Inc. closed on Friday at $56.50.