Wright Investors Service Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Wright Investors Service Inc. reduced its position in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) by 11.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 45,200 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 5,777 shares during the quarter. Broadcom comprises about 3.4% of Wright Investors Service Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Broadcom were worth $10,479,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AVGO. Kades & Cheifetz LLC lifted its position in shares of Broadcom by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Kades & Cheifetz LLC now owns 6,623 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,536,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Broadcom by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 9,584 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $2,222,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. Richardson Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Broadcom by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 2,507 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $415,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. Michael S. Ryan Inc. lifted its position in shares of Broadcom by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Michael S. Ryan Inc. now owns 8,959 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $2,077,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Finally, Delta Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Broadcom by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter. Delta Investment Management LLC now owns 510 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $818,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. 76.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. William Blair assumed coverage on shares of Broadcom in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Broadcom from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Broadcom from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Broadcom from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Broadcom from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $223.54.

Insider Activity at Broadcom

In related news, Director Eddy W. Hartenstein sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.64, for a total transaction of $918,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 46,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,655,296. This represents a 7.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.96, for a total transaction of $10,798,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 842,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,246,926.56. The trade was a 5.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 191,278 shares of company stock worth $44,964,800. 2.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Broadcom Stock Performance

NASDAQ AVGO opened at $224.70 on Wednesday. Broadcom Inc. has a 1 year low of $109.02 and a 1 year high of $251.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market cap of $1.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 195.22, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $199.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.63.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $14.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.07 billion. Broadcom had a net margin of 10.88% and a return on equity of 30.12%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Broadcom Inc. will post 3.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.05%. This is a positive change from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. Broadcom’s dividend payout ratio is presently 191.87%.

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.