Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd. Decreases Holdings in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd. lowered its position in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO - Free Report) by 28.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 41,439 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock after selling 16,403 shares during the quarter. Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd.'s holdings in Broadcom were worth $6,938,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. now owns 515,388 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $120,070,000 after purchasing an additional 18,845 shares during the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC increased its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 1,100.8% in the fourth quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC now owns 15,707 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $3,642,000 after purchasing an additional 14,399 shares during the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 34,380 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $7,971,000 after purchasing an additional 2,570 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. increased its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 50.6% in the fourth quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 1,056 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $245,000 after purchasing an additional 355 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC increased its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 1,512.3% in the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 92,629 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $21,660,000 after purchasing an additional 86,884 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.43% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on AVGO shares. Bank of America increased their price target on Broadcom from $240.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Evercore ISI reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $304.00 target price (up previously from $267.00) on shares of Broadcom in a research note on Friday, June 6th. UBS Group raised their target price on Broadcom from $270.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Mizuho raised their target price on Broadcom from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic began coverage on Broadcom in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. They set a "buy" rating and a $301.00 target price for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $276.09.

Broadcom Stock Down 0.5%

NASDAQ:AVGO traded down $1.27 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $249.99. The company had a trading volume of 42,100,140 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,469,720. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 93.63, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.11. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $220.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $212.46. Broadcom Inc. has a 12-month low of $128.50 and a 12-month high of $265.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.98 billion. Broadcom had a return on equity of 35.49% and a net margin of 22.64%. Broadcom's revenue was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $10.96 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Broadcom Inc. will post 5.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 20th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 20th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.94%. Broadcom's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 88.39%.

Broadcom announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, April 7th that allows the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the semiconductor manufacturer to purchase up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Broadcom

In other Broadcom news, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 117,758 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.91, for a total transaction of $29,782,175.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,014,152 shares of the company's stock, valued at $256,489,182.32. The trade was a 10.40% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Justine Page sold 800 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.35, for a total value of $200,280.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 25,382 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,354,383.70. This trade represents a 3.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 849,134 shares of company stock worth $163,760,949. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company's stock.

Broadcom 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.