Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) Shares Up 3.4% Following Analyst Upgrade

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) shares rose 3.4% during trading on Monday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $233.00 to $265.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Broadcom traded as high as $232.05 and last traded at $227.74. Approximately 12,592,956 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 59% from the average daily volume of 30,441,766 shares. The stock had previously closed at $220.20.

AVGO has been the subject of several other reports. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Broadcom from $205.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Broadcom from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 target price (up previously from $210.00) on shares of Broadcom in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Broadcom from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $221.88.

Insider Activity at Broadcom

In other Broadcom news, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 150,000 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.94, for a total value of $25,941,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,181,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,399,515.40. The trade was a 11.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Gayla J. Delly sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.53, for a total value of $130,897.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 34,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,064,917.50. The trade was a 2.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 242,420 shares of company stock worth $42,701,286 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AVGO. AXA S.A. grew its position in shares of Broadcom by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 291,078 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $467,334,000 after acquiring an additional 7,608 shares during the period. Strait & Sound Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Broadcom by 829.8% during the third quarter. Strait & Sound Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,950 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,371,000 after purchasing an additional 7,095 shares during the period. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC increased its position in Broadcom by 943.3% in the third quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 20,136 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $3,473,000 after buying an additional 18,206 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. raised its stake in shares of Broadcom by 947.2% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 689,858 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $119,000,000 after buying an additional 623,983 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Broadcom by 969.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 386,644 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $66,696,000 after buying an additional 350,485 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Broadcom Price Performance

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $179.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $167.66. The company has a market cap of $1.07 trillion, a P/E ratio of 199.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.04.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.03. Broadcom had a return on equity of 30.12% and a net margin of 10.88%. The company had revenue of $14.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.07 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 51.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Broadcom Inc. will post 3.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a positive change from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.03%. Broadcom’s payout ratio is presently 191.87%.

Broadcom Company Profile

Broadcom Inc designs, develops, and supplies various semiconductor devices with a focus on complex digital and mixed signal complementary metal oxide semiconductor based devices and analog III-V based products worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Semiconductor Solutions and Infrastructure Software.