Amphenol Co. (NYSE:APH) Receives Mixed Recommendations from Hedge Funds and Analysts
Amphenol Co., a manufacturer of electronic connectors, has been given a “Hold” average recommendation by the ten research firms that currently cover the company, according to Bloomberg.com reports. Of these analysts, five have rated the stock with a hold recommendation while three have assigned it a buy rating. The research firms’ most recently issued twelve-month price objective is $84.56.
Recently, Amphenol announced that it will issue a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share on Wednesday, July 12th to investors of record on June 20th. This represents an annualized dividend of $0.84 and a dividend yield of 1.10%. Meanwhile, the ex-dividend date for this dividend is June 16th while Amphenol’s current dividend payout ratio (DPR) stands at 27.18%.
Recent shareholders’ activities show some changes in holdings related to this company’s shares; several hedge funds added or reduced their stakes in APH recently. MCF Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Amphenol by approximately 129% during the first quarter which now brings MCF Advisor LLC owns about 300 shares at $25,000 after acquiring another 169 shares last quarter; Manitou Investment Management Ltd also bought new APH stock position worth approximately $25,000 during the first quarter; Creative Financial Designs Inc ADV another hedge fund also acquired new APH shares last year valued at around $27,000 during the first quarter and RFP Financial Group LLC purchased another APH stake with around $28K during Q4/2020 respectively: Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares worth approximately $33k during Q1/2021.
Currently standing at almost 94%, significant ownership and stake in institutional investors and hedge funds suggests that this company’s shares are under scrutiny and balancing of potential investment options can be well advised for the investors.
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Analysts Weigh in on Amphenol’s Performance and Insider Selling Activity
Amphenol, a leading global provider of interconnect solutions, has been the subject of various comments from research analysts in recent months. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of the company and assigned a “hold” rating on May 18th. Credit Suisse Group, meanwhile, downgraded Amphenol’s stock from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced its price objective for the company from $91 to $77 on the same day. Truist Financial gave it a “buy” rating with an increased target price of $90 back in January while Robert W. Baird lowered its price target from $91 to $87 in April.
In other news, Amphenol insider Jean-Luc Gavelle sold 184,100 shares of their stock in early May at an average price of $74.67 each, yielding a total transaction amount of $13,746,747.00. It was disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which can be accessed through their website that insiders currently own 2.22% of the stock.
The company also recently announced payment for its quarterly dividend which will be issued on July 12th this year to investors who are recorded as such as June 20th. The dividend payout per share will amount to $0.21 and represents an annualized dividend yield of 1.10%. This comes after Amphenol reported better-than-expected earnings results for Q1 this year with net margin at 15.15% and return on equity (ROE) at 27.10%.
Amphenol’s current market value is at $45.42 billion with a PE ratio standing at 24.69 and beta set to around 1.23 indicating slightly above-average volatility compared with the broader market’s benchmark index value which is typically placed at around one point for reference purposes.
Despite some mixed signals from research analysts, Amphenol remains a highly valued company with significant investment potential. As always, investors should be vigilant and maintain a diversified portfolio to manage risks in the market.
