Brokerages Set Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) Target Price at $438.61

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the thirty-two brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $438.6071.

A number of research firms have weighed in on AVGO. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Broadcom from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $410.00 to $430.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $435.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Mizuho set a $480.00 target price on shares of Broadcom and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Broadcom in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $370.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $420.00 price objective on Broadcom and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th.

Insider Activity at Broadcom

In related news, Director Harry L. You acquired 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $325.13 per share, for a total transaction of $325,130.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 36,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,900,408.26. The trade was a 2.81% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $347.30, for a total transaction of $24,311,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 132,836 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,133,942.80. This represents a 34.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 779,901 shares of company stock worth $284,069,237. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Broadcom

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,703,487 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $469,566,000 after purchasing an additional 39,466 shares during the last quarter. Capital Counsel LLC NY purchased a new position in Broadcom in the second quarter valued at approximately $221,000. Waterloo Capital L.P. grew its holdings in Broadcom by 7.0% during the second quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 48,361 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $13,331,000 after purchasing an additional 3,180 shares during the period. Providence First Trust Co increased its position in Broadcom by 1,099.3% in the third quarter. Providence First Trust Co now owns 8,923 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $2,944,000 after buying an additional 8,179 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RiverFront Investment Group LLC increased its position in Broadcom by 107.6% in the second quarter. RiverFront Investment Group LLC now owns 16,524 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $4,555,000 after buying an additional 8,566 shares during the last quarter. 76.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Broadcom Stock Performance

NASDAQ AVGO opened at $324.85 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.54 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.25, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 1.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. Broadcom has a twelve month low of $138.10 and a twelve month high of $414.61. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $356.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $336.51.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.87 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $18.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.46 billion. Broadcom had a return on equity of 37.45% and a net margin of 36.20%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 28.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.42 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Broadcom will post 5.38 EPS for the current year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 22nd were paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. This is a boost from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 22nd. Broadcom’s payout ratio is presently 54.62%.

Broadcom Company Profile

Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) is a global technology company that designs, develops and supplies semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions for a broad range of markets. The company’s semiconductor business provides components and systems for wired and wireless communications, enterprise and cloud storage, networking and broadband access, serving original equipment manufacturers, cloud service providers, telecommunications carriers and industrial customers worldwide. Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, California, and operates globally with research, development and sales organizations across North America, Europe and Asia.

On the semiconductor side, Broadcom’s portfolio includes system-on-chip (SoC) and application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) solutions, radio-frequency and connectivity components, Ethernet switching and PHY devices, storage adapters and controllers, optical transceivers and other networking silicon.