The Goldman Sachs Group Begins Coverage on Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Equities researchers at The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) in a report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $315.00 price target on the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price target suggests a potential upside of 14.80% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on AVGO. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Broadcom from $270.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $230.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Redburn Atlantic started coverage on shares of Broadcom in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $301.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp upped their target price on Broadcom from $315.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Broadcom from $285.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Broadcom presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $290.21.

Broadcom Price Performance

Broadcom stock opened at $274.38 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.29 trillion, a PE ratio of 102.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.12. Broadcom has a 12-month low of $128.50 and a 12-month high of $281.18. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $246.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $218.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 5th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.01. Broadcom had a return on equity of 35.49% and a net margin of 22.64%. The company had revenue of $15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.98 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $10.96 EPS. Broadcom’s quarterly revenue was up 20.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Broadcom will post 5.38 EPS for the current year.

Broadcom declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, April 7th that permits the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the semiconductor manufacturer to repurchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Gayla J. Delly sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.13, for a total value of $795,390.00. Following the sale, the director owned 33,352 shares in the company, valued at $8,842,615.76. This represents a 8.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kirsten M. Spears sold 36,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $261.27, for a total transaction of $9,497,164.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 325,587 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $85,066,115.49. This represents a 10.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 829,716 shares of company stock valued at $216,933,761. 2.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Broadcom

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AVGO. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 477,220,137 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $79,900,968,000 after purchasing an additional 2,085,534 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Broadcom by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 102,207,120 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $23,647,209,000 after buying an additional 3,018,294 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Broadcom by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 93,274,317 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $21,624,718,000 after buying an additional 2,873,809 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Broadcom in the fourth quarter valued at $16,893,010,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Broadcom by 37.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 65,509,579 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $10,968,270,000 after acquiring an additional 17,985,046 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.