Broadcom Stock Is Having a Big Year. Here Are Some of the Highlights

Broadcom may have had a volatile year, but the stock was rising on investor enthusiasm Tuesday as it headed for its best year on record.

The California-based tech company is known for making application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs. Broadcom's customers use these specially designed chips to power artificial intelligence.

While the company has piqued investor interest as a semiconductor manufacturer, it is not purely an AI play. Broadcom also produces enterprise software and security solutions. The company operates through its Semiconductor Solutions and Infrastructure Software arms.

Broadcom has been on the receiving end of good news as of late. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri raised his price target on Broadcom stock to $270 from $220 on Monday and kept an Overweight rating.

Arcuri's not the only observer upbeat on the stock. On Friday, Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore included Broadcom in his list of favorite ideas for 2025. Moore had encouraged investors to "maintain high exposure to AI and data center names."

Shares of Broadcom rose 3.2% to $239.68 on Thursday. The stock has more than doubled in price this year, and is on pace for its best year on record, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

It wasn't always a smooth ascent. Shares of the chip maker were volatile early in 2024, tumbling in March fell after an earnings failed to excite investors, despite beating estimates. But Broadcom stock went on to rally to a record intraday high in June after the company posted even stronger earnings, and declared a 10-for-1 stock split effective July 15. Then in August, the stock slumped as part of a sector-wide selloff ahead of Nvidia earnings.

On Dec. 12, Broadcom reported strong fiscal-fourth-quarter earnings and provided strong guidance.

The company joined the $1 trillion club when its market capitalization topped that on Dec. 13. It is the eighth largest public company by market cap in the U.S. and the ninth in the world, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Broadcom shareholders are getting a New Year's gift in the form of an increased dividend. The company is paying a quarterly dividend of 59 cents per share, an 11% hike from the last dividend of 53 cents, on Dec. 31.