Why Broadcom Stock Beat the Market Today

Key Points

• An analyst cranked his price target higher on the shares.

• He also maintained his equivalent of a buy recommendation.

• 10 stocks we like better than Broadcom ›

Hardly for the first time in this "year of the chip stock" on the back of eager artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) was the subject of an analyst's price target raise on Thursday. This was compounded by the disappointment about a peer company's recent performance, resulting in some investors fleeing to Broadcom.

Ultimately, Broadcom stock closed Thursday's trading session nearly 3% higher, easily trouncing the S&P 500 index's 0.3% increase.

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A $20 change

Thursday's Broadcom booster was Oppenheimer's Rick Schafer, who upped his fair value assessment on the company to $325 per share. That was a bit of distance up from his preceding $305. In making that change he maintained his outperform (buy, in other words) recommendation on the shares.

Image source: Getty Images.

It's no coincidence that Schafer's updated take came one week before the company is scheduled to post its third-quarter results. His new analysis addressed both that quarter and the following frame, according to reports, with Schafer predicting that both will be impressive given the monster appetite for artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.

One of Broadcom's major appeals these days is its expertise in application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), essentially custom chips for advanced functionalities like AI. Schafer pointed out that the company is a leader in this product category.

Looking good next to the big peer

On Thursday, Broadcom also benefited from the fact that it is not Nvidia. The chip giant stumbled that day, tripped up by a second quarter of fiscal 2026 earnings report that left many investors disappointed. It's likely more than a few of these folks defected to Broadcom as a better play on AI processing hardware.

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Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.