Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock investors purchased 656,666 call options on the company. This is an increase of 168% compared to the typical volume of 245,075 call options.

Broadcom Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ AVGO opened at $220.79 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $179.49 and its 200-day moving average is $167.66. Broadcom has a 1 year low of $104.15 and a 1 year high of $251.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.03 trillion, a PE ratio of 191.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

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

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.07%. Broadcom’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 191.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Broadcom news, Director Harry L. You sold 6,540 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 30,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,308,000. This represents a 17.68 % 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 Charlie B. Kawwas sold 15,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.44, for a total transaction of $2,893,968.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 737,330 shares in the company, valued at $133,781,155.20. This represents a 2.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 242,420 shares of company stock valued at $42,701,286 over the last three months. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Broadcom

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. NCP Inc. lifted its stake in Broadcom by 615.4% in the second quarter. NCP Inc. now owns 465 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $747,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in Broadcom during the second quarter worth about $209,000. LRI Investments LLC increased its position in Broadcom by 510.5% during the second quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 2,088 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $3,353,000 after buying an additional 1,746 shares during the last quarter. McAdam LLC raised its stake in Broadcom by 59.8% in the second quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 358 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $574,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Insight Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Broadcom by 21.0% during the 2nd quarter. Capital Insight Partners LLC now owns 519 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $833,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. 76.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on AVGO. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Broadcom from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Broadcom from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays upped their target price on Broadcom from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Broadcom from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $210.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $221.88.

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.