Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) Trading 4.6% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) shares shot up 4.6% during trading on Monday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $462.00 to $470.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Broadcom traded as high as $348.49 and last traded at $345.75. 40,184,483 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 52% from the average session volume of 26,500,820 shares. The stock had previously closed at $330.48.

AVGO has been the topic of several other research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on Broadcom from $370.00 to $340.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $430.00 price target (up from $375.00) on shares of Broadcom in a report on Friday, December 12th. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Broadcom from $510.00 to $545.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Robert W. Baird set a $420.00 price objective on shares of Broadcom in a report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Broadcom from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $410.00 to $430.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $435.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Mark David Brazeal sold 38,281 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.65, for a total value of $12,542,769.65. Following the sale, the insider owned 266,494 shares in the company, valued at $87,316,759.10. This trade represents a 12.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Kirsten M. Spears sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $347.82, for a total transaction of $10,434,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 277,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $96,428,573.34. This represents a 9.76% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 458,785 shares of company stock worth $155,508,157. Company insiders own 1.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Broadcom

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Broadcom by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 483,442,939 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $133,261,046,000 after buying an additional 6,222,802 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Broadcom by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 190,084,351 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $65,788,194,000 after acquiring an additional 5,040,801 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Broadcom by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 111,277,280 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $38,396,634,000 after acquiring an additional 1,548,699 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Broadcom by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 85,546,083 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $29,607,500,000 after acquiring an additional 2,491,644 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Broadcom in the 4th quarter valued at about $24,252,196,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Broadcom Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $1.64 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.53, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.22. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $333.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $343.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 4th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $2.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.02. Broadcom had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 36.57%.The business had revenue of $19.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 29.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Broadcom Inc. will post 5.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Broadcom Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 23rd will be paid a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 23rd. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Broadcom’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.78%.

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.