Kirsten Spears Sells 30,000 Shares of Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) Stock

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) CFO Kirsten Spears sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $347.82, for a total transaction of $10,434,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 277,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $96,428,573.34. The trade was a 9.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Broadcom Trading Down 1.2%

AVGO stock traded down $4.20 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $343.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 31,081,599 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,238,350. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.63 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.15, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.21. Broadcom Inc. has a 1 year low of $138.10 and a 1 year high of $414.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 1.71. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $362.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $328.40.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 11th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.87 by $0.08. Broadcom had a net margin of 36.20% and a return on equity of 37.45%. The company had revenue of $18.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.46 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.42 earnings per share. Broadcom’s revenue was up 28.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Broadcom Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 22nd were given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 22nd. This is a positive change from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Broadcom’s payout ratio is 54.62%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Broadcom

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Broadcom by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 483,442,939 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $133,261,046,000 after buying an additional 6,222,802 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Broadcom by 0.5% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 185,276,987 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $51,071,601,000 after acquiring an additional 873,963 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Broadcom by 2.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 108,610,718 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $29,827,649,000 after acquiring an additional 2,226,585 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Broadcom during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $18,579,549,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Broadcom by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 39,149,651 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $12,915,861,000 after purchasing an additional 700,021 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AVGO. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $500.00 target price (up from $450.00) on shares of Broadcom in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Broadcom from $342.00 to $403.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $480.00 price objective (up from $415.00) on shares of Broadcom in a report on Friday, December 12th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Broadcom from $400.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on Broadcom from $500.00 to $510.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $436.89.

Broadcom Company Profile

Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) is a global technology company that designs, develops and supplies semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions for a broad range of markets. The company’s semiconductor business provides components and systems for wired and wireless communications, enterprise and cloud storage, networking and broadband access, serving original equipment manufacturers, cloud service providers, telecommunications carriers and industrial customers worldwide. Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, California, and operates globally with research, development and sales organizations across North America, Europe and Asia.

On the semiconductor side, Broadcom’s portfolio includes system-on-chip (SoC) and application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) solutions, radio-frequency and connectivity components, Ethernet switching and PHY devices, storage adapters and controllers, optical transceivers and other networking silicon.