Broadcom Inc (Nasdaq: AVGO ) stock traded 3 percent lower on Friday after the company reported modest fiscal second-quarter earnings and revenue beats. Analysts like what they are seeing from Broadcom, but investors initially took profits following the stock's recent run.

Broadcom reported second-quarter earnings per share of $4.88 on revenue of $5.017 billion. Both numbers topped consensus analyst estimates of $4.76 and $5.01 billion, respectively. Revenue was up 19 percent from a year ago.

[See: 10 of the Best Tech ETFs to Own .]

Broadcom reported $2.124 billion in free cash flow and GAAP gross margins of 50.9 percent, up from 47.2 percent a year ago.

"Our business continues to be very robust and sustainable," CEO Tan Hock says in a statement. "This is validated through our strong execution in the second quarter, which drove [non-GAAP] gross margin to a record 66.6 percent and free cash flow to 42.3 percent of net revenue."

By segment, wired infrastructure revenue was up 9 percent to $2.29 billion. Wireless communications revenue was up 13 percent to $1.29 billion. Enterprise storage revenue was up 63 percent to $1.16 billion. Industrial and other revenue was up 21 percent to $263 million.

Broadcom stock got off to a rocky start to the year after President Donald Trump blocked the company's proposed buyout of Qualcomm ( QCOM ) due to national security concerns. However, better-than-feared Apple ( AAPL ) iPhone sales and solid revenue growth have helped AVGO stock get back on track, gaining 14.4 percent in the past month. Broadcom generates roughly 10 percent of its total revenue from Apple.

Broadcom bought back 6.4 million shares of stock in the quarter and said it has repurchased another $1.15 billion of stock in the first four weeks of the third quarter.

Looking ahead, the company guided for third-quarter revenue of between $4.97 billion and $5.12 billion, in-line with its previous guidance and analyst estimates of $5.07 billion.

CFRA analyst Angelo Zino says Broadcom has bullish catalysts ahead in the second half of the year.

[See: The 10 Most Valuable Tech Companies in the World .]

"We expect AVGO to benefit from a favorable wireless landscape driven by greater content per device, and we also see opportunities related to the 802.11ax wi-fI product cycle, with an expected ramp in the second half of calendar year 2018," Zino says.

CFRA has a "strong buy" rating and $310 price target for AVGO stock .

Compare Offers

Compare Offers

Raymond Mitchell, Author

Post a Comment