Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Position in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC decreased its stake in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) by 16.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 83,778 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 16,965 shares during the period. Broadcom accounts for about 1.6% of Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Broadcom were worth $19,423,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wealth Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 900.0% in the third quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 1,760 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 1,584 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 858.7% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 18,369,841 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $3,168,798,000 after purchasing an additional 16,453,718 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 2,219.8% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 3,039 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $524,000 after purchasing an additional 2,908 shares in the last quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 896.9% in the third quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,911 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $502,000 after purchasing an additional 2,619 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 1,989.2% in the third quarter. Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC now owns 2,716 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $469,000 after purchasing an additional 2,586 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on AVGO. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 price objective (up previously from $210.00) on shares of Broadcom in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $201.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $245.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Broadcom currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $225.04.

Broadcom Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ:AVGO opened at $187.48 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $225.50 and a 200 day moving average of $192.65. Broadcom Inc. has a 52 week low of $119.76 and a 52 week high of $251.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $878.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 152.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.02.

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

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. This is a positive change from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. Broadcom’s dividend payout ratio is 191.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Diane M. Bryant sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.68, for a total value of $3,400,200.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,464,352.80. This represents a 69.90 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.96, for a total transaction of $10,798,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 842,836 shares in the company, valued at $202,246,926.56. This represents a 5.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 191,278 shares of company stock worth $44,964,800. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Broadcom

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.