Viking Fund Management LLC Has $28.52 Million Holdings in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Viking Fund Management LLC cut its stake in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) by 24.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 123,000 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 39,100 shares during the period. Broadcom accounts for approximately 4.4% of Viking Fund Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest holding. Viking Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Broadcom were worth $28,516,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AVGO. NCP Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 615.4% during the 2nd quarter. NCP Inc. now owns 465 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $747,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. grew 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 buying an additional 8,760 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 83,846 shares in the last quarter. Shellback Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Broadcom in the 2nd quarter valued at $60,368,000. Finally, Sender Co & Partners Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 40.2% during the 2nd quarter. Sender Co & Partners Inc. now owns 848 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $1,361,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup increased their target price on Broadcom from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Broadcom from $233.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Broadcom from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Broadcom from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Broadcom from $210.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $225.83.

Broadcom Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AVGO opened at $244.70 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.15 trillion, a P/E ratio of 199.59, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.03. Broadcom Inc. has a 52-week low of $117.43 and a 52-week high of $251.88. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $207.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average 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 (NASDAQ:AVGO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $14.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.07 billion. Broadcom had a net margin of 11.43% and a return on equity of 28.00%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Broadcom Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Broadcom Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kirsten M. Spears sold 12,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.62, for a total transaction of $2,886,323.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 325,443 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $74,728,221.66. This trade represents a 3.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Harry L. You sold 6,540 shares of Broadcom stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total value of $1,569,600.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 30,450 shares in the company, valued at $7,308,000. The trade was a 17.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 191,278 shares of company stock worth $44,964,800 over the last quarter. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

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.