Does Broadcom Have Anywhere to Grow?

After closing the regular session down 1.03 percent, Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ:BRCM) dropped another 1.5 percent in post-market trading following the announcement of its fourth-quarter and full-year financial report.

The market reaction was a little underwhelming, given that the company reported record annual net revenue of $8.01 billion, record annual cash flow of $1.93 billion, and increased its quarterly dividend by 10 percent. Analysts were looking for full-year revenue of $7.98 billion.

The buzz-kill in the report was weak expectations for first-quarter sales. As the largest supplier of chips for television set-top boxes and a major processor maker for communications devices, the company is sensitive to electronics sales. Coming off the holiday season, sales are expected to be softer in the current quarter.

For the fourth quarter, Broadcom reported net revenue of $2.08 billion, a 14.3 percent year-over-year increase. Net income of $0.43 per share compares against $0.45 per share in the year-ago period. For the current quarter, analysts are looking for earnings of $0.63 per share on $2.00 billion in revenue.