Amphenol Corporation $APH Shares Purchased by AIA Group Ltd

AIA Group Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Amphenol Corporation (NYSE:APH) by 128.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 604,277 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 339,426 shares during the quarter. Amphenol comprises 0.6% of AIA Group Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Amphenol were worth $50,941,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in Amphenol by 24.2% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 71,281,059 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $12,107,146,000 after purchasing an additional 13,884,641 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Amphenol by 10.5% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,579,919 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,923,371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,578,248 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LP boosted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $2,898,248,000 after purchasing an additional 15,908,901 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Amphenol by 4.5% during the second 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 during the period. Finally, Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new position in shares of Amphenol in the second quarter worth about $1,600,531,000. Institutional investors own 97.01% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Amphenol news, CEO Richard Norwitt sold 799,576 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,855,014 shares in the company, valued at $317,961,554.72. This represents a 17.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.42% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

APH has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Amphenol from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Amphenol in a research report on Wednesday, September 30th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $105.00 price objective for the company. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Amphenol from $190.00 to $105.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $102.00 target price on shares of Amphenol in a research note on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Amphenol from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $108.32.

Amphenol Trading Down 9.2%

Shares of NYSE APH opened at $71.73 on Friday. Amphenol Corporation has a twelve month low of $59.01 and a twelve month high of $89.93. The firm has a market cap of $177.13 billion, a PE ratio of 31.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $81.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $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 (NYSE:APH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The electronics maker reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $10.23 billion for 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 revenue was up 65.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.93 EPS. Analysts expect that Amphenol Corporation will post 2.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amphenol announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $4 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the electronics maker to repurchase up to 2% of its stock through open market purchases. Share repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Amphenol Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 13th. Investors 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 yield of 0.8%. This is a drop from Amphenol’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 22nd. Amphenol’s payout ratio is currently 21.74%.

Amphenol 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.