Amphenol Corporation $APH Stock: Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Grows Position

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its stake in Amphenol Corporation (NYSE:APH) by 92.0% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 143,622 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 68,828 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Amphenol were worth $12,107,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in APH. 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 worth $12,107,146,000 after buying an additional 13,884,641 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Amphenol by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,579,919 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,923,371,000 after buying an additional 1,578,248 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LP raised its holdings in Amphenol by 3,010.0% during the second 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 in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of Amphenol by 4.5% during 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 worth $1,710,939,000 after buying an additional 416,388 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in Amphenol in the second quarter worth $1,600,531,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

APH has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $115.00 target price (up from $112.00) on shares of Amphenol in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Amphenol from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Monday. Zacks Research raised Amphenol from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Amphenol in a report on Wednesday, September 30th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $105.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on Amphenol from $175.00 to $90.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $107.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Richard Norwitt sold 799,576 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.48, for a total value of $65,949,028.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 3,855,014 shares in the company, valued at approximately $317,961,554.72. This trade represents a 17.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 1.42% of the company’s stock.

Amphenol Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of Amphenol stock opened at $79.32 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $81.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. Amphenol Corporation has a twelve month low of $59.01 and a twelve month high of $89.93. The stock has a market cap of $195.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.27.

Amphenol (NYSE:APH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The electronics maker reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.07. Amphenol had a return on equity of 42.53% and a net margin of 17.95%. The firm had revenue of $10.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.93 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 65.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Amphenol Corporation will post 2.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amphenol Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 22nd will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is a decrease from Amphenol’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 22nd. Amphenol’s payout ratio is 21.74%.

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

Amphenol Profile

Amphenol Corporation designs, manufactures and markets electrical, electronic and fiber-optic connectors, interconnect systems, antennas and sensor products. Its offerings also include cable assemblies and related components used to transmit signals and power in electronic equipment and systems. The company serves customers in a range of markets, including communications and information technology, automotive, aerospace and defense, industrial, mobile devices and data networks. Its products are used in applications such as vehicles, communications infrastructure, commercial aircraft and industrial equipment.