The Club on Friday is changing the rating and price target on one of our favorite semiconductor stocks, while updating the price targets on four other names in the portfolio to reflect recent earnings, new internal developments and broader economic forces. AVGO YTD mountain Broadcom year-to-date performance. We’re increasing our price target on Broadcom to $1,200 a share, up from $1,000 to reflect the strong quarter it reported last week. At the same time, we are bullish on the integration of recently acquired VMware , and appreciative of the semiconductor firm’s capital returns through a growing dividend and aggressive share-repurchase program. The stock has been one of the best performers in the S & P 500 this week, advancing roughly 20% compared to the index’s 2.5% gain. Given the run it’s had in such a short period of time, we are downgrading our rating to 2, meaning we would be buyers on a pullback. In addition, Broadcom’s surge this week has us feeling a little greedy on this big position. It’s not every week you see a company of its size go on a run like this — with the company’s market cap swelling to roughly $460 billion. We plan to trim a small number of shares out of discipline to lock in our huge gains when we are not restricted from trading. COST YTD mountain Costco Wholesale year-to-date performance. We are increasing our price target on Costco Wholesale to $680 a share, up from $630. The decision reflects the stronger-than-expected quarter the retailer reported Thursday, with earnings of $3.58 per share beating estimates of $3.42. We think more gains are ahead for Costco on appreciation of its $15-a-share special cash dividend and anticipation of a membership-fee increase that could come sometime in late 2024. HON YTD mountain Honeywell year-to-date performance. We are nudging up our price target on Honeywell to $230 a share, from $225. The market didn’t care at first for Honeywell’s $4.95 billion acquisition of Carrier ‘s security business, but…
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