Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM) has a serious chip on its shoulder. That's all right as long as you can walk the walk.
This week's third-quarter report showed that Broadcom really does have the walk to back up its big talk. Sales jumped 12.6% from last quarter and 44% year-over-year to $1.81 billion, while GAAP earnings expanded from $0.16 per share a year ago to $0.60 per share this time. Operating cash flow for the quarter nearly doubled from the year-ago period and remains comfortably ahead of earnings. These results were driven by strong growth across all of Broadcom's reportable segments, with particular emphasis on wired and wireless communications.
This is a healthy business any way you slice it. Broadcom rewarded its shareholders with a 12% one-day return, building its one-year stock performance to 55.9% -- or 57.1% if you reinvested the dividends along the way. That's a stronger return than any of the company's major rivals, and the difference only increases if you zoom out further:
|
Stock |
1-Year Return |
5-Year Return |
|---|---|---|
|
Broadcom |
57.1% |
51.6% |
|
Marvell Technology Group (Nasdaq: MRVL) |
36.1% |
(15.7%) |
|
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) |
27.3% |
12.4% |
|
Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) |
8.8% |
16.3% |
|
STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) |
7.3% |
(47.9%) |
Source: Yahoo! Finance, assuming reinvestment of dividends.
So what about that Texas-sized chip on Broadcom's shoulder? For starters, the company's stated core mission is this: "connecting everything." Then, in this week's earnings call, CEO Scott McGregor happily proclaimed that he is "looking forward to additional market share expansion" in the December quarter. Elsewhere in that call, CFO Eric Brandt was happy to rub his company's success in the faces of every doubter: "What a difference a year or two makes, right? Because a year ago, everybody was saying, will you ever make money in Mobile and Wireless? And today, you'll see that our Mobile and Wireless segment had operating margins in excess of 20%."
Like I said, swagger is a good thing when you can back it up. Audacious goals and projections of this kind have fueled some of the greatest growth stories in market history. So it's up to Broadcom to keep the passion alive if it wants to keep beating the market. This stock has helped me attain All-Star status and a 97.4 rating (out of 100) in our CAPS system, and I think Broadcom can help you, too, if you add an "outperform" rating on the stock.
