Foolish Forecast: Broadcom Unfazed
By
Dave Mock
July 21, 2008
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After the bell on Tuesday, investors will get the latest three months worth of financials from communications chip maker Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM). Coming off a great first quarter, let's see where expectations lie now.
What analysts say:
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Buy, sell, or waffle? Of the 29 analysts giving estimates for Broadcom, 21 maintain a buy rating while the other eight have a hold on shares. Broadcom also holds a three-star rating (out of five) with 649 members offering opinions in the Motley Fool CAPS community.
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Revenue. The average analyst expects quarterly revenue to balloon to $1.11 billion, 23% higher than the same quarter last year.
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Earnings. The average expectation for non-GAAP net earnings this quarter is $0.35 per share.
What management says:
CEO Scott McGregor primed investors for another good quarter by stating that "based on strong ordering trends from our customers throughout the first quarter, we expect solid revenue growth for the second quarter within each of our three major target markets." Strong orders may not be coming from customer Motorola (NYSE: MOT), but Broadcom is likely getting a boost by providing the touchscreen controller IC in the latest generation of Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone and also parts for top phone seller Nokia (NYSE: NOK).
Broadcom has continued to fare well in the courtroom as well, extolling a win in a recent case against SiRF Technology (Nasdaq: SIRF) and claiming to still hold the upper hand in product bans forced on Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM).
What management does:
After several quarters of heavy spending on research and development, Broadcom is now beginning to see the fruits of these investments in its margins.
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Margin
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12/06
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03/07
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06/07
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09/07
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12/07
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3/08
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Gross
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51.0%
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50.9%
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50.8%
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51.1%
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51.5%
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52.1%
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Operating
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6.8%
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4.9%
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2.9%
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1.6%
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2.7%
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3.5%
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Net
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10.3%
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8.8%
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6.9%
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4.6%
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5.6%
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5.8%
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All data courtesy of Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Data reflects trailing-12-month performance for the quarters ended in the named months.
One Fool says:
Broadcom is standing tall even after multiple blows that could have taken down lesser companies. Outside the company, the economy that appears to be getting worse by the day hasn't seemed to slow orders. The SEC is also suing company executives in the massive $2.2 options backdating scandal and co-founder Henry Samueli pleaded guilty to charges that he had lied during the SEC investigation. Even the indictment of Broadcom's other founder, Henry Nicholas, for allegedly manipulating options and drugging customers during a raucous corporate lifestyle hasn't seemed to faze the stock -- it's actually up more than 17% in the past three months.
At this point, it appears the only thing that will take down Broadcom is fundamental weakness in operations, which the company has rarely shown.
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