Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Reduces Position in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. trimmed its stake in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 660,395 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 45,582 shares during the quarter. Broadcom comprises 4.4% of Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its biggest position. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Broadcom were worth $737,166,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PSI Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Broadcom by 66.7% in the fourth quarter. PSI Advisors LLC now owns 25 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Broadcom in the third quarter worth $29,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Broadcom during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. CKW Financial Group purchased a new stake in shares of Broadcom during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Bfsg LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Broadcom during the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. 76.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AVGO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen raised Broadcom from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $1,400.00 to $1,500.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. UBS Group raised their price objective on Broadcom to $1,480.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $1,500.00 price objective on shares of Broadcom in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $1,500.00 target price (up previously from $1,100.00) on shares of Broadcom in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price target on Broadcom from $1,400.00 to $1,550.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,285.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at Broadcom

In other news, Director Eddy W. Hartenstein sold 3,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,290.34, for a total value of $4,064,571.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,643 shares in the company, valued at $5,991,048.62. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Eddy W. Hartenstein sold 3,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,290.34, for a total value of $4,064,571.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,643 shares in the company, valued at $5,991,048.62. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Mark David Brazeal sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,316.46, for a total value of $3,291,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 41,974 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,257,092.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 29,920 shares of company stock valued at $40,306,667 over the last quarter. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Broadcom Stock Performance

NASDAQ AVGO opened at $1,344.07 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $622.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.82, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.25. Broadcom Inc. has a twelve month low of $601.29 and a twelve month high of $1,438.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $1,306.70 and a 200 day moving average of $1,134.07.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $10.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.95 by $2.04. The company had revenue of $11.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.79 billion. Broadcom had a return on equity of 47.71% and a net margin of 29.93%. Broadcom’s quarterly revenue was up 34.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $9.83 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Broadcom Inc. will post 35.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 21st were issued a dividend of $5.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 20th. This represents a $21.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Broadcom’s payout ratio is currently 77.84%.

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.