Amphenol Corporation $APH Stock: Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Increases Holdings

Key Points

• Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its Amphenol stake by 100.5% in the third quarter, adding 151,944 shares and bringing its holdings to 303,154 shares, valued at about $25.6 million.
• Analysts remain broadly positive: 18 rate the stock Buy or Strong Buy and one rates it Hold, with an average price target of $108.32. Amphenol’s latest quarterly earnings and revenue exceeded consensus estimates, and revenue rose 65.1% year over year.
• Amphenol shares were reported down 9.2%; the company also cut its quarterly dividend from $0.25 to $0.15 per share and authorized up to $4 billion in share repurchases.

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Amphenol Corporation (NYSE:APH - Free Report) by 100.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 303,154 shares of the electronics maker's stock after acquiring an additional 151,944 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund's holdings in Amphenol were worth $25,556,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its stake in Amphenol by 24.2% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 71,281,059 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $12,107,146,000 after purchasing an additional 13,884,641 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Amphenol by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,579,919 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $2,923,371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,578,248 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP increased its holdings in Amphenol by 3,010.0% during the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 16,437,431 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $2,898,248,000 after purchasing an additional 15,908,901 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Amphenol by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 9,703,604 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,710,939,000 after purchasing an additional 416,388 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amphenol in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,600,531,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.01% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on APH shares. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Amphenol from a "buy (a-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Zacks Research raised shares of Amphenol from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, October 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn reduced their price objective on shares of Amphenol from $197.00 to $107.00 in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Amphenol in a report on Monday, October 26th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Amphenol from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $108.32.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amphenol news, CEO Richard Norwitt sold 799,576 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.48, for a total transaction of $65,949,028.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,855,014 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $317,961,554.72. This represents a 17.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.42% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Amphenol Trading Down 9.2%

NYSE:APH opened at $71.73 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $177.13 billion, a PE ratio of 31.19, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.27. The business's 50 day moving average is $81.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $75.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. Amphenol Corporation has a 52 week low of $59.01 and a 52 week high of $89.93.

Amphenol (NYSE:APH - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The electronics maker reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $10.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Amphenol had a return on equity of 42.53% and a net margin of 17.95%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 65.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.93 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Amphenol Corporation will post 2.84 EPS for the current year.

Amphenol Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 22nd. This is a negative change from Amphenol's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Amphenol's payout ratio is presently 21.74%.

Amphenol announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, October 28th that allows the company to buy back $4 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the electronics maker to buy up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Amphenol Company Profile

Amphenol Corporation NYSE: APH is a global manufacturer of electrical, electronic and fiber-optic connectors, interconnect systems and related products. Its portfolio includes cable assemblies, sensors, antennas, backplane systems, radio-frequency components and other specialized electronic hardware.

The company serves customers across a range of industries, including automotive, aerospace and defense, information technology and data communications, industrial, mobile networks, commercial aerospace, medical and other markets.

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