Ascent Group LLC Boosts Stock Position in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Ascent Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) by 873.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 48,634 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after purchasing an additional 43,640 shares during the quarter. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Broadcom were worth $8,389,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Broadcom by 1,121.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 90,400,508 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $15,594,088,000 after buying an additional 82,998,328 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Broadcom by 842.4% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 35,998,595 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $6,209,758,000 after purchasing an additional 32,178,542 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Broadcom by 975.4% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,819,675 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $5,833,894,000 after purchasing an additional 30,674,902 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Broadcom by 962.3% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,997,455 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $5,519,591,000 after purchasing an additional 28,985,434 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Broadcom by 938.8% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 23,422,781 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $4,040,430,000 after purchasing an additional 21,168,095 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on AVGO shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Broadcom from $176.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. William Blair began coverage on Broadcom in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Broadcom from $185.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Broadcom from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Broadcom in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $195.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Gayla J. Delly sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.53, for a total transaction of $130,897.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 34,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,064,917.50. This represents a 2.11 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.37, for a total value of $8,168,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,331,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $217,594,136.70. This trade represents a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 311,080 shares of company stock valued at $53,540,590 in the last three months. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Broadcom Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ AVGO opened at $162.08 on Monday. Broadcom Inc. has a 12 month low of $90.31 and a 12 month high of $186.42. The company has a market cap of $757.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 140.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $173.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $161.69.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.24 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $13.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.98 billion. Broadcom had a return on equity of 30.12% and a net margin of 10.88%. Broadcom’s quarterly revenue was up 47.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.95 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Broadcom Inc. will post 3.78 EPS for the current year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 19th were given a $0.53 dividend. This is a positive change from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 19th. Broadcom’s dividend payout ratio is presently 184.35%.

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.