Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Cuts Stake in Broadcom Inc. $AVGO

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lowered its position in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) by 23.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 492,892 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 150,385 shares during the period. Broadcom comprises about 0.9% of Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Broadcom were worth $162,610,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sawyer & Company Inc raised its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 62.1% during the second quarter. Sawyer & Company Inc now owns 94 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC bought a new position in Broadcom in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Broadcom in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new position in Broadcom in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Finally, LGT Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Broadcom in the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 130,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $326.02, for a total value of $42,382,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 595,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $194,189,900.76. This represents a 17.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Charlie B. Kawwas sold 1,928 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.80, for a total transaction of $631,998.40. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 23,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,730,179.60. This trade represents a 7.56% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 650,701 shares of company stock valued at $239,190,157. 2.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AVGO. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Broadcom in a research note on Monday. 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, December 12th. Benchmark raised their target price on Broadcom from $385.00 to $485.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. 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. Finally, Argus increased their price objective on Broadcom from $285.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $436.33.

Broadcom Stock Up 0.4%

AVGO stock opened at $347.62 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $362.90 and a 200 day moving average of $327.32. The firm has a market cap of $1.65 trillion, a PE ratio of 73.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.21. Broadcom Inc. has a twelve month low of $138.10 and a twelve month high of $414.61. 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 (NASDAQ:AVGO) last released 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. Broadcom had a return on equity of 37.45% and a net margin of 36.20%.The business had revenue of $18.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Broadcom Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 22nd. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. This is an increase from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Broadcom’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.