Kercheville Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Kercheville Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) by 11.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,375 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the quarter. Kercheville Advisors LLC’s holdings in Broadcom were worth $398,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vista Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Broadcom during the first quarter valued at about $2,091,000. Vicus Capital grew its stake in Broadcom by 15.8% during the first quarter. Vicus Capital now owns 4,284 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $717,000 after acquiring an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. Inscription Capital LLC purchased a new position in Broadcom during the first quarter valued at approximately $133,000. JLB & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in Broadcom by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. JLB & Associates Inc. now owns 8,839 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,480,000 after acquiring an additional 937 shares during the period. Finally, Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in Broadcom by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC now owns 5,413 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $906,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Broadcom Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of Broadcom stock opened at $252.10 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.17. Broadcom Inc. has a 52-week low of $128.50 and a 52-week high of $265.43. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $214.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $210.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 205.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.11.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.01. Broadcom had a net margin of 11.43% and a return on equity of 28.00%. The business had revenue of $15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.98 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $10.96 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Broadcom Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current year.

Broadcom declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, April 7th that authorizes the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor manufacturer to repurchase up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Broadcom Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.94%. Broadcom’s payout ratio is presently 88.39%.

Insider Activity at Broadcom

In other news, insider Mark David Brazeal sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.65, for a total transaction of $5,839,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 490,956 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $95,564,585.40. The trade was a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 117,758 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.91, for a total value of $29,782,175.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,014,152 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $256,489,182.32. This represents a 10.40% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 848,334 shares of company stock worth $163,560,669 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on AVGO. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Broadcom in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Broadcom from $276.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Broadcom from $223.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Broadcom from $250.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Benchmark upped their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $255.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $276.09.

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.