Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Has $713.25 Million Stock Holdings in Broadcom Inc. $AVGO

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans cut its holdings in shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,161,956 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after selling 97,252 shares during the period. Broadcom accounts for approximately 1.4% of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Broadcom were worth $713,251,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AVGO. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 483,442,939 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $133,261,046,000 after buying an additional 6,222,802 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Broadcom by 0.5% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 185,276,987 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $51,071,601,000 after acquiring an additional 873,963 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Broadcom by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 108,610,718 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $29,827,649,000 after acquiring an additional 2,226,585 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Broadcom in the 2nd quarter worth $18,579,549,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Broadcom by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 38,449,630 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $10,598,641,000 after purchasing an additional 2,978,768 shares in the last quarter. 76.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on AVGO shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Broadcom in a report on Monday, December 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Broadcom from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $410.00 to $430.00 in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Broadcom from $400.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on shares of Broadcom in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $370.00 target price for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 target price on shares of Broadcom in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $437.28.

Insider Activity at Broadcom

In other Broadcom news, Director Henry Samueli sold 320,316 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $400.53, for a total value of $128,296,167.48. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 37,326,540 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,950,399,066.20. This represents a 0.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Mark David Brazeal sold 38,281 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.65, for a total transaction of $12,542,769.65. Following the sale, the insider owned 266,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $87,316,759.10. This trade represents a 12.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 779,901 shares of company stock valued at $284,069,237 over the last three months. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Broadcom Price Performance

Shares of AVGO opened at $310.51 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.71, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $350.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $338.20. Broadcom Inc. has a 1-year low of $138.10 and a 1-year high of $414.61. The company has a market cap of $1.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.23, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.21.

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

Broadcom Increases Dividend

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

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.