Benchmark Reiterates Buy Rating for Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Benchmark restated their buy rating on shares of Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) in a research report report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $255.00 price target on the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock.

AVGO has been the subject of several other reports. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Broadcom from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Broadcom from $201.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Broadcom from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Broadcom from $205.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $205.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $231.48.

Broadcom Stock Up 8.6 %

Shares of Broadcom stock opened at $194.96 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $913.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 159.02, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $222.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $192.74. Broadcom has a 1 year low of $119.76 and a 1 year high of $251.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.07.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $14.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.07 billion. Broadcom had a net margin of 11.43% and a return on equity of 28.00%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 51.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Broadcom will post 5.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 20th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.21%. Broadcom’s payout ratio is 191.87%.

Insider Transactions at Broadcom

In related news, Director Eddy W. Hartenstein sold 4,000 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.64, for a total value of $918,560.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 46,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,655,296. This trade represents a 7.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Check Kian Low sold 48,000 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $235.35, for a total transaction of $11,296,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 113,050 shares in the company, valued at $26,606,317.50. This represents a 29.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 191,278 shares of company stock valued at $44,964,800 in the last 90 days. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Broadcom

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVGO. State Street Corp grew its stake in Broadcom by 948.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 184,434,213 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $31,814,902,000 after acquiring an additional 166,844,263 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Broadcom by 976.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 99,188,826 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $17,055,760,000 after acquiring an additional 89,975,941 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 82,998,328 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Broadcom during the 4th quarter worth $16,893,010,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in Broadcom by 842.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 35,998,595 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $6,209,758,000 after purchasing an additional 32,178,542 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

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.