NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Broadcom (BRCM) were gaining 2.2% to $43.87 Monday after Nomura upgraded the chipmaker to "buy" from "neutral."

The analyst firm also raised its price target to $50 from $40. Nomura analyst Romit Shah said the firm had been looking for a chance to upgrade Broadcom since the company's analyst meeting in December, but didn't see a pullback and a catalyst until last week.

"Broadcom remains very cheap, per our estimation, trading at 15x free cash flow (minus stock comp), versus a comp average of 18x," Shah wrote. The analyst said the discount "reflects disyrust in management after one bad acquisition and failed attempts in baseband." Shah believes Broadcom management deserves more credit as "almost every company botched baseband."

Broadcom's analyst day meeting "demonstrated a strong effort to right the ship, as evidenced by reduced stock option expense, higher capital returns and improved financial transparency," according to Shah.

The analyst firm also noted that Broadcom is a potential takeover target.

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Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates BROADCOM CORP as a Buy with a ratings score of A-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate BROADCOM CORP (BRCM) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income, revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and good cash flow from operations. Although no company is perfect, currently we do not see any significant weaknesses which are likely to detract from the generally positive outlook."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• BROADCOM CORP reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past year. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, BROADCOM CORP increased its bottom line by earning $1.08 versus $0.74 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($2.80 versus $1.08).
• The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has significantly exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment industry. The net income increased by 132.1% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $168.00 million to $390.00 million.
• Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 10.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 3.8%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
• BRCM's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.18 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels. Along with this, the company maintains a quick ratio of 2.85, which clearly demonstrates the ability to cover short-term cash needs.
• Net operating cash flow has significantly increased by 61.89% to $633.00 million when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, BROADCOM CORP has also vastly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of -16.21%.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: BRCM Ratings Report