Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) gapped up prior to trading on Monday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $233.00 to $265.00. The stock had previously closed at $220.20, but opened at $226.69. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Broadcom shares last traded at $227.94, with a volume of 9,733,892 shares traded.

AVGO has been the subject of several other reports. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Broadcom from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. William Blair assumed coverage on Broadcom in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. TD Cowen increased their price target on Broadcom from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Broadcom to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 target price (up from $210.00) on shares of Broadcom in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $221.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Broadcom

In other news, Director Gayla J. Delly sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.53, for a total value of $130,897.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 34,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,064,917.50. This represents a 2.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Harry L. You sold 6,540 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total transaction of $1,569,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 30,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,308,000. This trade represents a 17.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 92,420 shares of company stock valued at $16,760,286 in the last 90 days. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVGO. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Broadcom during the 2nd quarter valued at about $128,000. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Broadcom in the 2nd quarter valued at $136,000. American Capital Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Broadcom in the 2nd quarter valued at $169,000. Semus Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Broadcom during the 2nd quarter valued at $202,000. Finally, Palisades Hudson Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in Broadcom in the 2nd quarter worth $204,000. Institutional investors own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Broadcom Trading Up 5.2 %

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $179.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $167.66. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 201.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.13.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $14.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.07 billion. Broadcom had a return on equity of 30.12% and a net margin of 10.88%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 51.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Broadcom Inc. will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This is a positive change from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.02%. Broadcom’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 191.87%.

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.