Wealthfront Advisers LLC Purchases 50,458 Shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Wealthfront Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO - Free Report) by 10.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 527,067 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock after purchasing an additional 50,458 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC's holdings in Broadcom were worth $88,247,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sunbeam Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Broadcom in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Broadcom in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Broadcom in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Broadcom in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Finally, Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Broadcom in the first quarter valued at about $26,000. 76.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Mark David Brazeal sold 50,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $253.28, for a total transaction of $12,664,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 415,956 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $105,353,335.68. This represents a 10.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kirsten M. Spears sold 56,310 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $91,117,639.75. This represents a 13.46% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 830,516 shares of company stock valued at $217,224,641. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AVGO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Broadcom from $285.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Benchmark boosted their price objective on Broadcom from $255.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Broadcom from $265.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Broadcom in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Broadcom from $270.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $292.08.

Broadcom Trading Down 1.0%

AVGO stock traded down $2.86 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $283.59. 10,835,674 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 27,836,706. Broadcom Inc. has a 52-week low of $128.50 and a 52-week high of $288.28. 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 business has a 50 day moving average of $252.91 and a 200-day moving average of $219.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 106.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.12.

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

Broadcom declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program 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 programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Broadcom Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 20th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 20th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.83%. Broadcom's dividend payout ratio is 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.