Broadcom (AVGO)

It was on an uptrend till late-2017, then suffered a series of lower highs and lows. Semi-conductors are breaking their 200-day moving averages. We've seen a consolidation period this year, because inventories have built up among the semis.

He likes it after the pullback, trading on good technical support at $204-206. Potential upside. Earnings forecasts have been rising. Excellent balance sheet. Buying at $205 should work out.

He is not a big fan of semiconductors at this time. In general, he wants to see good fundamentals that are confirmed by good technicals. At this point, the Broadcom technicals are not good. It has broken trend and for that reason he would not step into it. Regarding the semiconductor cycle, he thinks there is less downside this time than there has been traditionally because there are so many new categories that are creating accelerating demand for semiconductors, such as AI, machine learning, and autonomous driving. These will fuel demand even in a downturn. He would also not buy a semiconductor company based on its dividend growth--semiconductor companies should be showing strong revenue growth. He would wait until the chart looks better and if the fundamentals still look good, then he would buy. (Analysts’ price target is $287.16)

He has held it for a while and it has done very well. Every once in a while you get these entry points. They recently confused the market by buying a software company when they are a chip company. It has been clearer that they have now acquired cash flow, patents and a new platform for M&A. (Analysts’ target: $287.90).

He likes it because it's pulled back a lot after buying a software company. The market didn't like Broadcom, which makes semi-conductors, buying a software company. The stock is cheap, under 10x earnings. Well-managed, and expects it to recover. (Analysts' price target: $290.07)

(A Top Pick July 18/17 Down 15%). They covered their position in June. He likes the semi-conductor group, but the stock gapped down and they sold out.

It's the big semiconductor maker in the U.S. The company is still growing nicely. They'll do a $12 billion buyback program. A solid growth company (Analysts' price target: $309.60)

(A Top Pick Jan 27/18, Up 20%) The takeover was rejected and the stock retreated, but he still holds it. It is still reasonably priced at 12 times. He likes the valuation, business and yield.

Chip maker. $12 billion dollar buy back. Tons of free cash flow. Cheap stock. (Analysts’ price target is $312.30)

Broadcom makes chips. It merged with Avgo, which also made chips. The are producing chips across the board, including chips for automobiles and for mobile devices. This business is very capex heavy and is changing rapidly. They have the scale to continuously innovate and pump capital in. The stock trades at 12x earnings with a dividend of $2 (3%). (Analysts' price target is $319.26).

This company has such a tight grip on the chip side of things, and you see evidence of that with how much Apple (AAPL-Q) has gotten into bed with them, in terms of making them a quasi-exclusive chip manufacturer for some parts of the iPhone. Thinks the acquisition with Qualcomm (QCOM-Q) is going to happen. Dividend yield of 2.6%. (Analysts' price target is $320.)

A $100 billion market cap company. Think Cloud, think big data, think automation. They have wireline products, wireless products, enterprise storage, industrial automation, etc. They’ve been making a huge rate of return. It is undervalued. Dividend yield of 1.6%. (Analysts’ price target is $290.)

QCOM-Q vs. AVGO-Q. Broadcom is getting closer to closing their deal. They have great price momentum, although valuation is catching up. QCOM-Q has poor price momentum and poor valuation.

Broadcom (AVGO-Q), Nvidia (NVDA-Q) or Amazon (AMZN-Q) for a long-term hold? He likes all of them. They are all very interesting companies. We all know the story of Amazon, and Nvidia is on fire with their new graphic chips. Broadcom has been doing a great job of consolidating the traditional computer chip industry. This one is probably the low PE, lowest growth of the bunch, but thinks you would be happy to own it.

This plays into the new iPhone theme. They expect to have 40% more content in the new iPhone than they did in the last iPhone. They make RF chips which are going into everything. The only semiconductor company that has a long-term contract with Apple. Dividend yield of 1.6%. (Analysts’ price target is $277.50.)