Short Interest in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) Rises By 7.6%

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 54,740,000 shares, a growth of 7.6% from the August 15th total of 50,860,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 37,620,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.5 days.

Insider Activity at Broadcom

In other news, Director Justine Page sold 2,540 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.03, for a total value of $444,566.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 27,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,809,714.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 7,502 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,705.95, for a total value of $12,798,036.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 138,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $235,746,936.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Justine Page sold 2,540 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.03, for a total value of $444,566.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 27,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,809,714.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Broadcom

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 3.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,651,273 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $59,181,244,000 after purchasing an additional 1,303,462 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,330,880 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $26,044,294,000 after purchasing an additional 1,006,223 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,825,465 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $5,386,425,000 after purchasing an additional 170,063 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 43.9% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,141,025 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $5,488,556,000 after purchasing an additional 1,263,957 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 2.2% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,963,063 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $6,362,816,000 after purchasing an additional 83,846 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and issued a $156.00 price target on shares of Broadcom in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. StockNews.com lowered Broadcom from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Broadcom from $160.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. TD Cowen upgraded Broadcom to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on Broadcom from $156.60 to $204.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $189.23.

Broadcom Stock Performance

AVGO opened at $164.02 on Tuesday. Broadcom has a 52-week low of $79.51 and a 52-week high of $185.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $763.49 billion, a PE ratio of 7.05, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.04. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $157.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $145.98.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 5th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.04. Broadcom had a return on equity of 30.12% and a net margin of 10.88%. The business had revenue of $13.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.98 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.95 earnings per share. Broadcom’s revenue was up 47.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Broadcom will post 3.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.53 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 19th. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. This is a positive change from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. Broadcom’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.12%.

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.