Broadcom Corp. left Las Vegas and the International Consumer Electronics Show with several analyst nods following executive meetings and product demos at the event.
FBR & Co.’s Christopher Rolland raised his price target on the Irvine-based chipmaker from $29 to $32, citing increased confidence in its product portfolio and strategic direction. He said in a recent note to investors that Broadcom and its San Diego rival, Qualcomm Corp., “were nicely leveraged to the two largest trends at CES, [the Internet of Things] and wearables, with their connectivity appearing in numerous high-profile devices.”
Internet of Things refers to a developing technological infrastructure that allows users to remotely control or access devices, such as washing machines or light bulbs, through a smartphone, tablet or Web browser.
Broadcom Chief Executive Scott McGregor used the influential convention to tout the company’s prospects in the mobile and wireless segment, particularly for Long Term Evolution, or LTE networks.
FBR has an “outperform” rating on Broadcom.
Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. reiterated its buy rating and raised its price target from $32 to $35. The investment firm said Broadcom’s product breadth will continue to secure contract wins and allow greater design flexibility for its manufacturing customers, evident by its recent Samsung LTE win and new LTE thin modem scheduled for release this year.
B. Riley & Co. upgraded Broadcom stock from neutral to buy and raised its price target from $29 to $37, citing its relative valuation and LTE product lifecycle.
The company had a recent market value of about $16.37 billion.
Broadcom introduced a slew of products at the electronics show, including an audio application that delivers music directly to speakers from any device connected to a Wi-Fi network; and a 5G combo Wi-Fi chip for digital TVs that delivers three times the bandwidth of current offerings for seamless streaming.
Innovation Debuts
Broadcom was among some 100 Orange County technology companies that showcased new products at the electronics show this year.
Here’s a quick rundown of some other locals that showed off devices and equipment during the largest tech fest in the country, which drew more than 150,000 people from around the globe:
• Irvine-based Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.’s digital products division showcased the first laptops featuring ultra high-definition, or 4K displays. The unit of Japan-based Toshiba Corp. also featured three new lines of 4K TVs with voice control.
• Irvine-based networking equipment maker Lantronix Inc. debuted a mobile device, the xPrintServer – Cloud Print Edition, that it said allows users to print documents from Android OS mobile devices and devices running Google’s Chrome browser and operating system.
• Fountain Valley-based Kingston Technology Co. introduced a USB flash drive that protects passwords with hardware encryption. The drive comes in 8, 16, 32 and 64-gigabyte capacities.
• Foothill Ranch-based Iogear introduced a device that enables wireless streaming from a smartphone or laptop to a TV, plus a similar wireless receiver that streams high-definition video from a PC or Apple laptop to a high-definition TV up to 30 feet away.
