Amphenol — 2026Q3 earnings
reported 2026-07-29
EPS $0.68 vs $0.60 est — beat
next session +6.3% (close 2026-07-29 → 2026-07-30)
Source
Press release ↗Summary
Amphenol's report is two stories stacked. The release shows reported sales growth running well ahead of organic growth, and the acquisition programme — CommScope above all, whose full-year sales and accretion expectations were both marked up mid-integration — accounts for the difference. The call locates the organic half of the acceleration in IT datacom, where management ties the step-up directly to artificial-intelligence demand. Orders exceeded shipments, and on the call management said every end market booked a positive book-to-bill, which makes the demand signal forward-looking rather than a description of the quarter just closed. Two qualifiers sit in plain sight, and both come from the company: operating income includes a tariff recovery that guidance explicitly assumes will not recur, and communications networks shrank organically even as the acquisition made the reported line grow. Management gave the margin excluding the tariff refunds outright rather than leaving it to be backed out.
Earnings call
Earnings call webcast ↗Review
From the report
A record quarter in which the headline and the underlying business moved by very different amounts: reported sales growth ran far ahead of organic growth, with the acquisition programme accounting for the gap, while orders came in well above shipments. Two things the release states itself keep the print from being read straight — operating income carries a one-time tariff recovery, and the next-quarter guidance assumes no repeat of it.
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Sales set a company record, but the reported growth rate and the organic growth rate are far apart — the gap between the two is the acquisition programme, not underlying demand. show quote
“Sales of $8.8 billion, up 55% in U.S. dollars and 30% organically compared to the second quarter of 2025”
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Orders ran well ahead of shipments: a book-to-bill above parity describes the next few quarters rather than the one being reported. show quote
“Orders of $10.7 billion, resulting in a book-to-bill of 1.23:1”
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The reported operating income carries a one-time item — an $80 million ($0.04 per share) net tariff recovery — so the printed margin is not purely operating performance. show quote
“GAAP and Adjusted Operating Income include an $80 million ($0.04 per share) net benefit related to the recovery of IEEPA tariffs”
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Guidance calls for another step up in both sales and adjusted EPS, and the company states plainly that it assumes no repeat of the tariff recovery that helped this quarter. show quote
“for the third quarter of 2026, Amphenol expects sales to be in the range of $9.3 billion to $9.4 billion, representing a 50% to 52% increase over the prior year quarter. Adjusted Diluted EPS is expected to be in the range of $1.40 to $1.42, representing a 51% to 53% increase from the third quarter of 2025. This guidance does not include any additional tariff recoveries.”
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CommScope is being marked up mid-integration: the full-year sales and EPS-accretion expectations for the acquisition were both raised above the prior guide. show quote
“given the better than expected performance of CommScope, Amphenol now expects this acquisition to generate full-year sales of $4.6 billion and to be $0.30 accretive to the Company’s Adjusted Diluted EPS in 2026. This is above our prior expectations for sales and accretion of $4.1 billion and $0.15, respectively.”
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From the call
Management's own account puts the acceleration in one place — artificial-intelligence demand in IT datacom — while being unusually explicit about the two qualifiers: communications networks shrank organically behind an acquisition-inflated reported line, and the quarter's margin owed something to tariff refunds that will not repeat.
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Management put the quarter's growth engine in IT datacom, at 43% of sales, and tied the acceleration directly to demand for products used in artificial-intelligence applications. show quote
“The IT datacom market represented 43% of our sales in the quarter, and we once again had a very strong quarter in IT datacom. Growing 89% in U.S. dollars and 63% organically. This was driven by continued acceleration in demand for our products used in artificial intelligence applications together with robust growth in our base IT datacom business.”
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The record book-to-bill was broad rather than concentrated — management said every end market booked more than it shipped in the quarter. show quote
“This impressive book-to-bill was driven by robust bookings in all of our end markets, with every end market having a positive book-to-bill this quarter.”
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Communications networks was the exception to the growth story: the reported line grew on the CommScope acquisition while the underlying business shrank, on softness at both network operators and wireless equipment makers. show quote
“The communications networks market represented 11% of our sales in the quarter, Sales grew from prior year by 55% in U.S. dollars driven primarily by the addition of CommScope. On an organic basis, sales actually moderated by 6% from prior year, due to demand moderations from both communications network operators and wireless equipment manufacturers.”
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Management gave the operating margin excluding the tariff refunds outright — nearly 29% — rather than leaving readers to back the one-time benefit out themselves. show quote
“Excluding the benefit of net tariff refunds, our operating margins still reached nearly 29%.”
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as of 2026-09-17