Erste Group Bank Upgrades Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) to Buy

Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on AVGO. Barclays cut their price objective on Broadcom from $260.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Bank of America cut their price objective on Broadcom from $260.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Broadcom in a report on Friday, March 7th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and set a $276.00 target price (up from $210.00) on shares of Broadcom in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Finally, Redburn Atlantic started coverage on Broadcom in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $301.00 target price on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Broadcom presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $270.25.

Broadcom Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AVGO opened at $246.95 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98. Broadcom has a 1 year low of $128.50 and a 1 year high of $265.43. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $203.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $206.52. The firm has a market cap of $1.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 201.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.11.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 5th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.01. Broadcom had a return on equity of 28.00% and a net margin of 11.43%. The business had revenue of $15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.98 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $10.96 earnings per share. Broadcom’s quarterly revenue was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Broadcom will post 5.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 20th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 20th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.96%. Broadcom’s payout ratio is presently 113.46%.

Broadcom declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, April 7th that allows the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the semiconductor manufacturer to purchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Broadcom

In related news, Director Justine Page sold 800 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $230.19, for a total transaction of $184,152.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 26,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,026,834.58. This trade represents a 2.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Mark David Brazeal sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.65, for a total value of $5,839,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 490,956 shares in the company, valued at $95,564,585.40. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 720,576 shares of company stock worth $131,249,694. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Broadcom

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVGO. Norges Bank bought a new position in Broadcom during the fourth quarter valued at about $16,893,010,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Broadcom during the first quarter valued at about $6,649,117,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Broadcom by 37.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 65,509,579 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $10,968,270,000 after acquiring an additional 17,985,046 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Broadcom by 18,179.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 17,276,164 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $2,892,548,000 after acquiring an additional 17,181,652 shares during the period. Finally, GQG Partners LLC increased its stake in Broadcom by 200.0% during the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 10,213,160 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $2,367,819,000 after acquiring an additional 6,809,245 shares during the period. 76.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.