On April 21, 2023, Zurich Cantonalbank announced that it had sold off nearly half of its stake in electronics manufacturer Amphenol Co. between January and March of that year. According to the bank’s 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), it owned 78,069 shares of Amphenol stock at the end of Q1, down from 154,247 at the close of last year—a decrease of 76,178 shares valued at $5,944,000.
Meanwhile, VP Lance E. D’amico took advantage of a favorable stock price on February 3 to sell 25,000 shares of APH stock for $2,054,750—or an average price of $82.19 per share—bringing his total holdings down to 25,700 shares worth over $2 million. This move was followed by another insider sale as Jean-Luc Gavelle sold off 129,800 shares on February 9 for a total sum of $10,596,872.
These recent insider sales have caught the attention of industry analysts who will be eagerly following developments in the months ahead to see whether other company executives follow suit or if there are other factors affecting Amphenol’s status quo.
Despite these scattered events affecting its stock price recently — including insider sales and high volatility — Amphenol is still holding its ground amid increasing market pressure. The company recently traded for around $77 a share during trading on April 21st after opening at this level earlier that morning.
Amphenol has sustained itself well during times like these because it has managed to achieve an impressive quick ratio of 1.64 and current ratio of 2.42 despite carrying some debt on its books with a debt-to-equity ratio standing at approximately .65%.
Looking forward and based off fundamentals alone; APH has both its fans and detractors numbering among financial authorities, but for now, the company seems poised to hold its own until external factors sway the investment community’s sentiment.
Investor Confidence Grows in Amphenol Co. Amid Insider Selling Reports
Amphenol Co. (NYSE:APH) has been attracting significant investment from hedge funds and institutional investors in recent times, leading to changes in the positioning of some of these key players. Notably, RFP Financial Group has acquired a new stake in Amphenol in the fourth quarter that is currently valued at $28,000, while Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services has gained a new stake in the company that is now considered to be worth about $41,000. These moves are indicative of growing interest and trust in Amphenol as an electronics maker.
However, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. has recorded the biggest gain by growing its stake in Amphenol by 497.2% during the first quarter, owning 633 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 527 shares last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc., on the other hand, increased its stake in Amphenol by 33.1% during Q3 to own 716 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after gaining an additional 178 shares.
Looking at analyst ratings for APH stocks, Truist Financial recently increased its price objective on Amphenol from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave it a “buy” rating on Monday, January 23rd. Similarly, StockNews.com upgraded APH stocks from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating on Sunday, March 19th due to strong performances reported. Currently holding a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy,” Bloomberg data shows that six analysts have assigned buy ratings and four have assigned hold ratings to Amphenol stock.
Despite this positive news surrounding investor confidence and analyst opinions towards AMH stocks over recent months though; there have been reports about insiders selling off their stakes as well; Lance E D’amico sold off about 25k shares of the company’s stock for a total of $2,054,750.00 on average price within February 3rd, while Jean-Luc Gavelle followed suit and sold off a significant amount of shares last February 9th amounting to $10,596,872.00.
Nevertheless, Amphenol Co.’s earnings results posted on Wednesday, January 25th exceeded analysts’ consensus estimates regarding revenue and EPS as APH reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter compared to estimates of $0.75 by analysts. Furthermore, Amphenol had a net margin of 15.07% and a return on equity of 27.93%, beating business expectations overall.
On top of these intriguing reports has been the recent announcement of quarterly dividend at APH that took place last April 12th that amounts to an annualized basis dividend yield percentage of 1.09%. What this suggests is that despite some insider selling and positioning shakeups from investors band hedge funds alike lately in relation to Amphenol’s stocks; there’s still much confidence in its potentials moving forward as it continues to deliver solid earnings growth along with promising figures in other industry metrics such as offers or dividends among others.
