Argent Trust Co Buys 1,020 Shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Key Points

• Argent Trust Co increased its stake in Broadcom by 0.8%, acquiring 1,020 additional shares, bringing its total ownership to 130,429 shares valued at approximately $21.8 million.
• Broadcom recently reported earnings of $1.58 per share for the quarter, exceeding analyst expectations, with revenue up by 20.2% year-over-year.
• The company has authorized a $10 billion share buyback plan, indicating confidence in the stock's valuation.

Argent Trust Co lifted its stake in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO - Free Report) by 0.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 130,429 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock after acquiring an additional 1,020 shares during the quarter. Broadcom comprises approximately 0.9% of Argent Trust Co's holdings, making the stock its 24th largest position. Argent Trust Co's holdings in Broadcom were worth $21,838,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Broadcom during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Broadcom during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Broadcom during the 1st quarter worth about $26,000. Sunbeam Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Broadcom during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Broadcom during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Institutional investors own 76.43% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial set a $295.00 price objective on Broadcom and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Arete Research raised Broadcom to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Erste Group Bank raised Broadcom from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Barclays upped their price target on Broadcom from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 9th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Broadcom in a report on Friday, June 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Broadcom currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $294.92.

Broadcom Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of AVGO opened at $288.64 on Friday. Broadcom Inc. has a 1 year low of $128.50 and a 1 year high of $306.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $266.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $224.53. The stock has a market cap of $1.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 108.10, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.15.

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

Broadcom Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 20th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 20th. Broadcom's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 88.39%.

Broadcom announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, April 7th that allows the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the semiconductor manufacturer to repurchase up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 40,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.29, for a total transaction of $10,731,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 482,836 shares of the company's stock, valued at $129,540,070.44. This trade represents a 7.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Justine Page sold 800 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $274.30, for a total value of $219,440.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 24,582 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,742,842.60. This represents a 3.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 830,516 shares of company stock worth $217,224,641. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.

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