Ridgewood Investments LLC Buys 900 Shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Key Points

• Ridgewood Investments LLC increased its stake in Broadcom Inc. by 20.6% in the first quarter, acquiring an additional 900 shares, bringing their total holdings to 5,261 shares valued at approximately $881,000.
• Broadcom's stock has received positive analyst ratings, with one firm raising its target price to $325.00, contributing to a consensus "Buy" rating among 27 analysts.
• The company recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, representing an annual yield of 0.81%, alongside a $10 billion stock repurchase plan approved by its board.

Ridgewood Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO - Free Report) by 20.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,261 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock after buying an additional 900 shares during the quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC's holdings in Broadcom were worth $881,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AVGO. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 18,179.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 17,276,164 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $2,892,548,000 after buying an additional 17,181,652 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Broadcom by 46.9% during the 4th 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 buying an additional 15,171,849 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Broadcom by 27.4% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 26,897,909 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $6,236,011,000 after buying an additional 5,783,988 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Broadcom by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 49,087,351 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $11,380,411,000 after acquiring an additional 5,258,925 shares in the last quarter. Finally, APG Asset Management N.V. grew its stake in Broadcom by 609.4% in the fourth quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 4,379,348 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $980,500,000 after acquiring an additional 3,762,034 shares during the period. 76.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AVGO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised Broadcom to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Broadcom in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. They set a "buy" rating and a $315.00 target price for the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Broadcom from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 5th. Evercore ISI reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $304.00 price target (up previously from $267.00) on shares of Broadcom in a report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective 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 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $292.08.

Broadcom Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of AVGO stock opened at $290.18 on Friday. Broadcom Inc. has a 52-week low of $128.50 and a 52-week 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 stock has a market cap of $1.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 108.68, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.12. The firm's 50-day moving average is $260.05 and its 200-day moving average is $222.13.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 5th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $14.98 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $10.96 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Broadcom Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current year.

Broadcom Dividend Announcement

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

Broadcom declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, April 7th that permits the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the semiconductor manufacturer to buy up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Broadcom

In other Broadcom news, Director Henry Samueli sold 473,898 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.33, for a total value of $125,739,356.34. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 38,188,575 shares in the company, valued at $10,132,574,604.75. The trade was a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kirsten M. Spears sold 36,350 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $261.27, for a total transaction of $9,497,164.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 325,587 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $85,066,115.49. This represents a 10.04% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 830,516 shares of company stock worth $217,224,641. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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