Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) Stake Boosted by Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.

Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. grew its stake in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) by 1,821.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,500 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after acquiring an additional 34,600 shares during the period. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s holdings in Broadcom were worth $6,296,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Lion Street Advisors LLC raised its position in Broadcom by 1.9% in the second quarter. Lion Street Advisors LLC now owns 324 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $520,000 after purchasing an additional 6 shares in the last quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors grew its stake in Broadcom by 0.6% during the second quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 1,409 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $2,262,000 after buying an additional 8 shares during the last quarter. Anderson Hoagland & Co. grew its stake in Broadcom by 0.3% during the second quarter. Anderson Hoagland & Co. now owns 2,667 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $4,623,000 after buying an additional 9 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd grew its stake in Broadcom by 6.0% during the second quarter. Wealth Group Ltd now owns 176 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $283,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. grew its stake in Broadcom by 1.4% during the second quarter. Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. now owns 723 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,161,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. 76.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Broadcom

In related news, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 150,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.94, for a total value of $25,941,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,181,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,399,515.40. This trade represents a 11.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Gayla J. Delly sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.53, for a total value of $130,897.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 34,750 shares in the company, valued at $6,064,917.50. This trade represents a 2.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 311,080 shares of company stock valued at $53,540,590 over the last ninety days. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AVGO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. UBS Group upped their price target on Broadcom from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. TD Cowen upgraded Broadcom to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Broadcom from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Broadcom from $176.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Two investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $195.96.

Broadcom Stock Performance

AVGO opened at $159.67 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $745.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 138.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.17. Broadcom Inc. has a 52-week low of $90.31 and a 52-week high of $186.42. 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 fifty day moving average is $173.72 and its 200-day moving average is $161.28.

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. The company had revenue of $13.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.98 billion. Broadcom had a return on equity of 30.12% and a net margin of 10.88%. Broadcom’s quarterly revenue was up 47.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.95 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Broadcom Inc. will post 3.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 19th were paid a $0.53 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 19th. This is a positive change from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.33%. Broadcom’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 184.19%.

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.