Analysts Overwhelmingly Bullish Following Broadcom's Monster Quarter

Broadcom Ltd (NASDAQ: AVGO) shares were soaring Friday, hitting a new all-time high following a monster fourth-quarter earnings release that saw the company beat on earnings and sales estimates.

Fourth-quarter adjusted EPS for the semiconductor company soared year-over-year, coming in at $3.47 compared to just $2.51 in the same quarter last year. Revenues also grew substantially year-over-year, $4.146 billion versus $1.853 billion in 2015.

Broadcom may be benefiting from increased demand in Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Pixel smartphone, despite concerns regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 7 sales.

Sell-side analysts were overwhelmingly bullish following Q4 results.

Barclays: Maintains At Overweight, $205 Price Target

“AVGO is the cheapest name in our group by any metric and remains one of our favorite names as we believe the growth of its business continues to be underappreciated and more importantly sustainable, which believe will prove out over time driving a re-rating,” Barclays' analysts stated.

Canaccord Genuity: Maintains At Buy, $250 PT

Canaccord analysts said, “We believe the management team will drive strong long-term earnings growth through executing on its announced Broadcom synergy targets combined with better than market growth for its wireless division.”

Brean Capital – Maintains Buy Rating, Raised PT To $210 from $205

“(AVGO) benefitted from a resurgence in key end markets like Enterprise Storage. Longer term and more importantly, AVGO demonstrated how its strategy in paying off in leverage in the financial model as the company raised its long-term operating margin forecast to 45 percent (from 40 percent) and is targeting to pay out 50 percent of its free cash flow in dividends going forward, ” the firm's analysts explained.

Oppenheimer – Maintains Outperform Rating, PT Raised from $200 To $215

“We believe AVGO has one of the most strategically and financially attractive business models in semiconductors. AVGO has a sustained competitive advantage in the secularly growing high-end filter market with best in-class visibility,” according to Oppenheimer analysts.

Pacific Crest Securities: Maintains Overweight Rating, $215 PT

Pacific Crest analysts commented, “Despite concerns regarding enterprise and iPhone weakness, AVGO delivered better results and guidance from its storage segment. Despite doubling its dividend and increasing its capital-return policy, AVGO noted that its appetite for M&A has not changed.”

At last check, Broadcom shares were up 4.7 percent at $178.73.

Image Credit: By Cmglee (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.