Meridian Financial Partners LLC Buys 279 Shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Meridian Financial Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) by 3.8% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 7,559 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after acquiring an additional 279 shares during the period. Meridian Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Broadcom were worth $1,266,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AVGO. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Broadcom in the fourth quarter worth about $16,893,010,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted 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 in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Broadcom by 46.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 47,524,533 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $11,018,089,000 after purchasing an additional 15,171,849 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Broadcom by 200.0% in the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 10,213,160 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $2,367,819,000 after purchasing an additional 6,809,245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Broadcom by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 475,134,603 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $110,155,206,000 after purchasing an additional 6,573,204 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AVGO. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Broadcom in a report on Friday. Truist Financial set a $295.00 target price on shares of Broadcom and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and set a $276.00 price target (up previously from $210.00) on shares of Broadcom in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $267.00 to $304.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Broadcom from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $270.25.

Broadcom Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AVGO opened at $246.95 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.16 trillion, a PE ratio of 201.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.11. Broadcom Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $128.50 and a fifty-two week high of $265.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.17. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $203.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $206.52.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last announced its earnings results 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 28.00% and a net margin of 11.43%. The firm had revenue of $15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.98 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $10.96 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Broadcom Inc. will post 5.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Broadcom Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 20th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 20th. Broadcom’s payout ratio is currently 113.46%.

Broadcom declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, April 7th that authorizes the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the semiconductor manufacturer to purchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Broadcom

In other news, Director Henry Samueli sold 663,976 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.60, for a total value of $120,578,041.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 38,798,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,045,847,733.60. The trade was a 1.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Mark David Brazeal sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total value of $4,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 465,956 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $83,872,080. This trade represents a 5.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 720,576 shares of company stock worth $131,249,694. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

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.