UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp Sells 22,546 Shares of Broadcom Inc. $AVGO

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp trimmed its stake in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) by 14.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 133,153 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 22,546 shares during the period. Broadcom makes up about 2.5% of UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s holdings in Broadcom were worth $43,929,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC acquired a new position in Broadcom in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new stake in Broadcom during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. LGT Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Broadcom during the second quarter worth $31,000. New England Capital Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Broadcom during the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, JCIC Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Broadcom during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho set a $480.00 target price on shares of Broadcom and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $500.00 price objective (up from $450.00) on shares of Broadcom in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Wall Street Zen raised Broadcom from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, December 13th. Benchmark lifted their target price on shares of Broadcom from $385.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Broadcom from $460.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $438.61.

Broadcom Price Performance

AVGO stock opened at $333.24 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.58 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 70.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.71 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $356.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $336.89. Broadcom Inc. has a 1 year low of $138.10 and a 1 year high of $414.61.

Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 11th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.87 by $0.08. Broadcom had a return on equity of 37.45% and a net margin of 36.20%.The company had revenue of $18.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.42 EPS. Broadcom’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Broadcom Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 22nd were given a $0.65 dividend. This is a boost from Broadcom’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 22nd. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Broadcom’s dividend payout ratio is 54.62%.

Insider Activity at Broadcom

In other Broadcom news, Director Henry Samueli sold 320,316 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.53, for a total transaction of $128,296,167.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 37,326,540 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,950,399,066.20. The trade was a 0.85% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Hock E. Tan sold 130,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $326.02, for a total value of $42,382,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 595,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,189,900.76. This trade represents a 17.92% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 779,901 shares of company stock worth $284,069,237 over the last quarter. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) is a global technology company that designs, develops and supplies semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions for a broad range of markets. The company’s semiconductor business provides components and systems for wired and wireless communications, enterprise and cloud storage, networking and broadband access, serving original equipment manufacturers, cloud service providers, telecommunications carriers and industrial customers worldwide. Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, California, and operates globally with research, development and sales organizations across North America, Europe and Asia.

On the semiconductor side, Broadcom’s portfolio includes system-on-chip (SoC) and application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) solutions, radio-frequency and connectivity components, Ethernet switching and PHY devices, storage adapters and controllers, optical transceivers and other networking silicon.