Pensioenfonds Rail & OV Acquires New Stake in Amphenol Corporation $APH

Pensioenfonds Rail & OV bought a new position in shares of Amphenol Corporation (NYSE:APH) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 184,186 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $15,527,000. Amphenol makes up 4.1% of Pensioenfonds Rail & OV’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. IFG Advisory LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amphenol by 11,663.6% in the 3rd quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 42,937 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $3,620,000 after purchasing an additional 42,572 shares in the last quarter. Optas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Amphenol by 134.8% in the third quarter. Optas LLC now owns 9,565 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $806,000 after purchasing an additional 5,492 shares during the period. AlTi Global Inc. purchased a new stake in Amphenol during the third quarter worth about $2,188,000. Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab boosted its holdings in Amphenol by 100.0% during the third quarter. Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab now owns 217,220 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $18,312,000 after buying an additional 108,610 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S boosted its holdings in Amphenol by 113.4% during the third quarter. Danske Bank A S now owns 2,712,601 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $228,672,000 after buying an additional 1,441,417 shares in the last quarter. 97.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on APH. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Amphenol from $175.00 to $90.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Amphenol from $107.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Evercore set a $100.00 price objective on Amphenol in a report on Wednesday, October 28th. Barclays boosted their target price on Amphenol from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 2nd. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on Amphenol in a report on Wednesday, September 30th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $105.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Amphenol presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $107.00.

Amphenol Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of NYSE APH traded down $1.47 during trading on Friday, hitting $78.15. 9,580,870 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,824,595. Amphenol Corporation has a 1 year low of $59.01 and a 1 year high of $89.93. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $81.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $75.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $192.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.27. 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 announced 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. Amphenol had a net margin of 17.95% and a return on equity of 42.53%. The firm had revenue of $10.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.93 earnings per share. Amphenol’s revenue was up 65.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Amphenol Corporation will post 2.83 EPS for the current year.

Amphenol Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 22nd. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. This is a decrease from Amphenol’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Amphenol’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.74%.

Amphenol declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the electronics maker to purchase up to 2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amphenol

In related news, CEO Richard Norwitt sold 799,576 shares of the business’s 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 directly owned 3,855,014 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $317,961,554.72. The trade was a 17.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 1.42% of the company’s stock.

About Amphenol

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.