Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Boosts Stake in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 102,408 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,787 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Broadcom were worth $114,314,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AVGO. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 28.2% in the 3rd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 2,313 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,921,000 after buying an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Bangor Savings Bank boosted its position in shares of Broadcom by 8.6% during the third quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 428 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $355,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. grew its position in Broadcom by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 202,700 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $168,359,000 after acquiring an additional 2,900 shares during the last quarter. Advisor Resource Council grew its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 14.9% in the third quarter. Advisor Resource Council now owns 772 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $641,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Investment Advisors MI increased its position in shares of Broadcom by 85.8% during the third quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI now owns 5,818 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $4,833,000 after acquiring an additional 2,687 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Broadcom Stock Performance

Shares of AVGO traded up $39.54 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $1,278.11. The stock had a trading volume of 2,487,939 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,905,354. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $1,309.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $1,145.17. Broadcom Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $601.29 and a fifty-two week high of $1,438.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $592.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.37, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.34.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 7th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $10.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.95 by $2.04. Broadcom had a net margin of 29.93% and a return on equity of 47.71%. The business had revenue of $11.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.79 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $9.83 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 34.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Broadcom Inc. will post 35.96 EPS for the current year.

Broadcom Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 21st were paid a $5.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 20th. This represents a $21.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. Broadcom’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.84%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Eddy W. Hartenstein sold 3,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,290.34, for a total value of $4,064,571.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,643 shares in the company, valued at $5,991,048.62. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Eddy W. Hartenstein sold 3,150 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,290.34, for a total transaction of $4,064,571.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 4,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,991,048.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Charlie B. Kawwas sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,344.00, for a total value of $6,720,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 16,575 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,276,800. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 29,920 shares of company stock worth $40,306,667 over the last 90 days. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on AVGO shares. UBS Group raised their price target on Broadcom to $1,480.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Broadcom from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $1,400.00 to $1,500.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $1,500.00 price objective (up from $1,100.00) on shares of Broadcom in a report on Friday, March 1st. Susquehanna upped their target price on Broadcom from $1,400.00 to $1,550.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Broadcom from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,285.41.

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.