Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) Short Interest Update

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 56,950,000 shares, a decrease of 16.9% from the December 15th total of 68,550,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 28,120,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Harry L. You sold 6,540 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total transaction of $1,569,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 30,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,308,000. The trade was a 17.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Mark David Brazeal sold 20,168 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.79, for a total value of $4,815,916.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 321,660 shares in the company, valued at $76,809,191.40. This trade represents a 5.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 191,278 shares of company stock worth $44,964,800. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Broadcom

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Broadcom by 948.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 184,434,213 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $31,814,902,000 after acquiring an additional 166,844,263 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Broadcom by 976.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 99,188,826 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $17,055,760,000 after purchasing an additional 89,975,941 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in Broadcom by 1,121.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 90,400,508 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $15,594,088,000 after purchasing an additional 82,998,328 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in Broadcom by 842.4% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 35,998,595 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $6,209,758,000 after purchasing an additional 32,178,542 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Broadcom by 975.4% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,819,675 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $5,833,894,000 after purchasing an additional 30,674,902 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AVGO has been the topic of a number of research reports. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 price objective (up from $210.00) on shares of Broadcom in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Broadcom to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $240.00 target price on shares of Broadcom in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on Broadcom from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $223.54.

Broadcom Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of AVGO traded up $1.41 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $229.41. The company had a trading volume of 23,427,036 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,616,039. Broadcom has a fifty-two week low of $109.02 and a fifty-two week high of $251.88. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $200.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $177.11. The stock has a market cap of $1.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 187.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.03. Broadcom had a return on equity of 28.00% and a net margin of 11.43%. The business had revenue of $14.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.07 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 51.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Broadcom will post 5.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a $0.59 dividend. This is a positive change from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. Broadcom’s payout ratio is currently 192.50%.

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.