Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Saturday morning.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $342.00 to $403.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $435.00 price target on Broadcom and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. TD Cowen upped their price target on Broadcom from $405.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Broadcom from $255.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $500.00 target price (up previously from $460.00) on shares of Broadcom in a report on Friday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $435.96.

Broadcom Stock Down 5.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:AVGO opened at $339.81 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.71, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market cap of $1.60 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.39, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $363.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $319.19. Broadcom has a 12-month low of $138.10 and a 12-month high of $414.61.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 11th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $0.08. Broadcom had a net margin of 36.20% and a return on equity of 37.45%. The company had revenue of $18.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.42 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 28.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Broadcom will post 5.38 EPS for the current year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a positive change from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 22nd. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Broadcom’s payout ratio is presently 49.58%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Broadcom news, insider Charlie B. Kawwas sold 3,893 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $347.82, for a total transaction of $1,354,063.26. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 25,295 shares in the company, valued at $8,798,106.90. This trade represents a 13.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.58, for a total value of $33,958,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 725,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,412,152.04. The trade was a 12.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 818,662 shares of company stock worth $297,135,938 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Broadcom

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AVGO. Mirabella Financial Services LLP boosted its holdings in Broadcom by 100.1% in the third quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP now owns 36,979 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $12,176,000 after purchasing an additional 18,500 shares during the period. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 128.2% in the 3rd quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 12,126 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $4,000,000 after buying an additional 55,126 shares during the period. CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Broadcom during the 3rd quarter valued at about $527,000. Mainstay Capital Management LLC ADV acquired a new stake in Broadcom during the third quarter worth about $363,000. Finally, Painted Porch Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Broadcom by 28.9% in the third quarter. Painted Porch Advisors LLC now owns 1,299 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $429,000 after acquiring an additional 291 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

About Broadcom

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.