Broadcom Corporation (BRCM): More Than Just an Apple Inc. (AAPL) Supplier

At CES, Broadcom shed light on its first-in-industry 5G WiFi-enabled TV set-top box. Moreover, the technology will be featured internally in the first smart television equipped for the chip, made by LG Electronics. Equally as important, Broadcom also announced a deal with Samsung to support the tech giant’s own smart TV set-top box equipped with Android ICS and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Mobile Services.

We now know that Broadcom will be powering NetGear, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTGR)‘s 200Mbps Powerline network adapters, and finally, the company shared that it had reached an agreement to spearhead Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA)‘s new cloud system, which prides itself on mobile functionality.

Here’s an interesting related tidbit: in an interview with Comcast’s VP of mobility solutions Randall Hounsell (via StreamingMedia), the exec discussed the prospects on an Apple smart TV. “We know they’re coming,” he said, before clarifying that the company doesn’t “know what it’s going to look like.” Now, logically speaking, it’s quite possible that Broadcom could be linked to an Apple TV as well, but we’ll hold off on speculation for now.

From an investment standpoint, Broadcom offers investors solid EPS growth–estimated to average 14.0% a year over the next half-decade. At a forward P/E under 12x, shares of BRCM are cheaper than Google (16.0x), NetGear (14.2x) and Comcast (17.3x), but are not as discounted as Apple (9.2x) at the moment. Closer competitors like ARM (47.7x) and Nvidia (12.9x) are more expensive than Broadcom as well. In addition to the attractive valuation, Broadcom also gives investors a decent dividend yield of 1.2%; only Comcast (1.7%), Apple (2.0%) and Nvidia (2.4%) offer a higher payout of the peers mentioned.

Wall Street currently holds an average price target of $40.89 on Broadcom, which represents close to a 17% upside from current levels. Of the nearly 400 hedge funds we track at Insider Monkey, the size of capital committed to BRCM jumped by almost 30% in the latest round of 13F filings with the SEC. Some of the most bullish money managers invested in the stock are David Tepper, Ken Griffin and Paul Tudor Jones (see all of David Tepper’s top stock picks).

For a longer look at Broadcom in general, check out the entire hedge fund industry’s sentiment toward the tech company, and continue reading here for related coverage:

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