Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Cuts Stake in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lowered its stake in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) by 2.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,702,896 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 48,383 shares during the period. Broadcom comprises 1.1% of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Broadcom were worth $394,800,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AVGO. NCP Inc. increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 615.4% during the second quarter. NCP Inc. now owns 465 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $747,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 8,760 shares in the last quarter. 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 in the last quarter. Shellback Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Broadcom during the second quarter worth about $60,368,000. Finally, Sender Co & Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of Broadcom by 40.2% during the second quarter. Sender Co & Partners Inc. now owns 848 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,361,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Broadcom news, Director Check Kian Low sold 48,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $235.35, for a total value of $11,296,800.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 113,050 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,606,317.50. This represents a 29.80 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Eddy W. Hartenstein sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.64, for a total transaction of $918,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 46,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,655,296. This represents a 7.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 191,278 shares of company stock worth $44,964,800 in the last ninety days. 2.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Broadcom Stock Performance

Shares of AVGO stock opened at $244.70 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $207.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $180.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.17. Broadcom Inc. has a one year low of $117.43 and a one year high of $251.88. The firm has a market cap of $1.15 trillion, a P/E ratio of 199.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.03.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 11.43% and a return on equity of 28.00%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Broadcom Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This is a positive change from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.96%. Broadcom’s dividend payout ratio is 192.50%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on AVGO shares. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Broadcom from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $233.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $225.83.

Broadcom 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.