Broadcom Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors bought 656,666 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 168% compared to the average volume of 245,075 call options.

Insider Transactions at Broadcom

In related news, Director Gayla J. Delly sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.53, for a total transaction of $130,897.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 34,750 shares in the company, valued at $6,064,917.50. This represents a 2.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 150,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.94, for a total transaction of $25,941,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,181,910 shares in the company, valued at approximately $204,399,515.40. This trade represents a 11.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 242,420 shares of company stock valued at $42,701,286. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Broadcom

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kiely Wealth Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new position in Broadcom in the second quarter valued at about $128,000. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC acquired a new position in Broadcom in the second quarter valued at about $136,000. American Capital Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Broadcom in the second quarter valued at about $169,000. Semus Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Broadcom in the second quarter valued at about $202,000. Finally, Palisades Hudson Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in Broadcom in the second quarter valued at about $204,000. 76.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Broadcom from $233.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Broadcom from $190.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Broadcom from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 price target (up previously from $210.00) on shares of Broadcom in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Broadcom currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $221.88.

Broadcom Stock Up 1.1 %

Broadcom stock opened at $220.79 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.03 trillion, a P/E ratio of 191.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.13. Broadcom has a 1-year low of $104.15 and a 1-year high of $251.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $179.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $167.66.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $14.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.07 billion. Broadcom had a net margin of 10.88% and a return on equity of 30.12%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 51.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Broadcom will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.07%. This is a positive change from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 23rd. Broadcom’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.