Stevens Capital Management LP Has $6.51 Million Stock Holdings in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Key Points

• Stevens Capital Management LP increased its holdings in Broadcom by 143.5% in the first quarter, owning 38,880 shares valued at approximately $6.51 million.
• Several analysts have raised their price targets for Broadcom, with Citigroup increasing its objective from $285 to $315, reflecting a consensus rating of "Buy" for the stock.
• Broadcom recently announced a $0.59 quarterly dividend with an annualized yield of 0.82% and plans to repurchase up to $10 billion worth of shares, indicating confidence in its stock value.

Stevens Capital Management LP raised its stake in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO - Free Report) by 143.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 38,880 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock after purchasing an additional 22,914 shares during the quarter. Broadcom accounts for about 1.6% of Stevens Capital Management LP's portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Stevens Capital Management LP's holdings in Broadcom were worth $6,510,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 102,207,120 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $23,647,209,000 after purchasing an additional 3,018,294 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Broadcom by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 93,274,317 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $21,624,718,000 after buying an additional 2,873,809 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Broadcom during the 4th quarter valued at about $16,893,010,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Broadcom by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 49,087,351 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $11,380,411,000 after purchasing an additional 5,258,925 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 46.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 47,524,533 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $11,018,089,000 after purchasing an additional 15,171,849 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.43% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Henry Samueli sold 473,898 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.33, for a total transaction of $125,739,356.34. Following the sale, the director directly owned 38,188,575 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,132,574,604.75. The trade was a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kirsten M. Spears sold 56,310 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.75, for a total value of $14,176,042.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 361,937 shares in the company, valued at $91,117,639.75. The trade was a 13.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 830,516 shares of company stock valued at $217,224,641 in the last three months. Insiders own 2.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AVGO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Broadcom from $230.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $315.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Broadcom from $285.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Broadcom from $315.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Broadcom from $250.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $292.08.

Broadcom Stock Performance

Shares of Broadcom stock traded up $1.47 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $290.18. The company's stock had a trading volume of 12,031,575 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,076,324. The stock has a market cap of $1.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 108.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.12. Broadcom Inc. has a one year low of $128.50 and a one year high of $292.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.08. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $260.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $222.18.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 return on equity of 35.49% and a net margin of 22.64%. The firm had revenue of $15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.98 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $10.96 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 20.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Broadcom Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, April 7th that allows the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the semiconductor manufacturer to reacquire up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Broadcom Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 20th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 20th. Broadcom's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 88.39%.

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.