Blue Trust Inc. Has $18.83 Million Stock Position in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO - Free Report) by 1,168.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 81,234 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock after buying an additional 74,829 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.'s holdings in Broadcom were worth $18,833,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVGO. NCP Inc. increased its position in shares of Broadcom by 615.4% during the 2nd quarter. NCP Inc. now owns 465 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $747,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Broadcom by 257.1% during the second quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 12,167 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock worth $19,535,000 after buying an additional 8,760 shares during the period. New Century Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Broadcom in the 2nd quarter valued at $376,000. RiverFront Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in Broadcom during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,778,000. Finally, Farmers National Bank boosted its holdings in Broadcom by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Farmers National Bank now owns 5,919 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock valued at $9,503,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the period. 76.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AVGO. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Broadcom from $205.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Broadcom from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Broadcom from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Broadcom from $190.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Three equities research 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, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $225.04.

Insider Activity at Broadcom

In other news, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 45,000 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.96, for a total value of $10,798,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 842,836 shares of the company's stock, valued at $202,246,926.56. This trade represents a 5.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Eddy W. Hartenstein sold 4,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 8th. The stock was 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 directly owns 46,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,655,296. This represents a 7.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 191,278 shares of company stock valued at $44,964,800 over the last three months. 2.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Broadcom Stock Up 4.6 %

NASDAQ AVGO traded up $9.41 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $215.76. The company had a trading volume of 29,322,403 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,650,025. The firm's 50 day moving average is $211.24 and its 200 day moving average is $181.27. The company has a market capitalization of $1.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 175.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.03. Broadcom Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $117.43 and a fifty-two week high of $251.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.07.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 analyst estimates of $14.07 billion. Broadcom had a return on equity of 28.00% and a net margin of 11.43%. Broadcom's revenue for the quarter was up 51.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Broadcom Inc. will post 5.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.09%. This is an increase from Broadcom's previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. Broadcom's dividend payout ratio is currently 192.50%.

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.