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Connecting the electronics world, the corporation is a primary producer of connectors and cables such as fiber optics and coaxial cables in the U.S.

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Amphenol Corporation designs, produces, and markets electrical, electronic, and fiber-optic connectors, which are used to transmit signal and power. In addition to connectors and connector systems, the company sells circuit boards, antennas, and power cables. Amphenol’s clients include automotive, broadband communication, and information technology companies.

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Q4 2024

Amphenol (APH): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Amphenol

amphenol

Good afternoon, everyone. This is Craig Lampo.

Hello, and welcome to the fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call for Amphenol Corporation. Following today's presentation, there will be a formal question and answer session. Until then, all lines will remain in a listen-only mode. At the request of the company, today's conference is being recorded. Today's conference host is Mr. Craig Lampo. Sir, you may begin.

Great. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, everyone. This is Craig Lampo, Amphenol's CFO, and I'm here together with Adam Norwitt, our CEO. We would like to wish everyone a happy New Year, and welcome you to our fourth quarter of 2025 conference call. Our fourth quarter of 2025, and then Adam will give an overview of the business and current market trends. We may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures and make certain forward-looking for further information. The company closed the fourth quarter of 2025 with record sales of $6.4 billion, and GAAP and adjusted diluted EPS of $0.97 and $0.93, respectively. The fourth quarter sales were up 49% in U.S. dollars, 48% in local currencies, and 37% organically compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.

Sequentially, sales were up 4% in US dollars and local currencies, and up 3% organically. Adam will comment further on trends by market in a few minutes. For the full year of 2025, sales were approximately $23.1 billion, up 52% in US dollars, 51% in local currencies, and 38% organically compared to 2024. We are very encouraged by our orders in the quarter, which were a record $8.431 billion, and up 38% sequentially, resulting. This impressive book-to-bill in the quarter was primarily applications. We have seen customers open their order window a bit in certain cases which helped to drive these strong bookings.

For the full year, orders were $25.4 billion, up 51% compared to 2024, resulting in a book-to-bill ratio of 1.1 to 1. GAAP operating income was $1.7 billion in the quarter, and GAAP operating margin was 26.8%. GAAP operating margin included $47 million of acquisition-related costs, primarily for external transaction costs and the amortization of acquired backlog. Excluding acquisition-related costs, adjusted operating margin and adjusted operating income was 27.5% and $1.8 billion, respectively. On an adjusted basis, operating margin increased by a strong 510 basis points from the prior year quarter and was flat sequentially.

The year-over-year increase in adjusted operating margin was primarily driven by robust operating leverage on the significantly higher sales volumes, which was only modestly offset by the dilutive impact of acquisitions. For the full year of 2025, GAAP operating income was $5.9 billion and included $181 million of acquisition-related costs. Excluding these costs, adjusted operating income was $6.1 billion in 2025. For the full year, GAAP operating margin and adjusted operating margin reached annual records of 25.4% and 26.2%, respectively, compared to 2024, primarily driven by strong operational performance on the significantly higher sales volumes, which again, was only modestly offset by the dilutive impact of acquisitions.

I'm extremely proud of the company's operating margin performance in the fourth quarter and for the full year of 2025, both of which reflect continued strong execution by segment compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. Sales in the Communication Solutions segment were $3.4 billion, and increased by 78% in U.S. dollars and 60% organically. Segment operating margin was 32.5%. Sales in the Harsh Environment Solutions segment increased by 31% in U.S. dollars and 21% organically, and segment operating margin was 27.6%. Sales in Interconnect and Sensor Systems segment were $1.4 billion, increased by 21% in U.S. dollars and 16% organically, and segment operating margin was 20.1%.

Bringing down full year results by segment compared to 2024, sales in the Communication Solutions segment were $12.1 billion, and increased by 91% in US dollars and 71% organically, and segment operating margins were $5.9 billion, increased by 33% in US dollars and 17% organically, and segment operating margin was 26.2%. And sales in the Interconnect and Sensor System segment were $5.2 billion, and increased by 15% US dollars and 13% organically, and segment operating margin. The company's GAAP effective tax rate was 26.9%, which in full year 2025, GAAP effective tax rate was 23.1%, which compared to 18.9% in 2024.

On an adjusted basis, the effective tax rate of 25.5%, both for the fourth quarter and full year, which compared to 24% in the prior year periods. As we discussed last quarter, the increase in our adjusted effective tax rate in 2025 was due to some shift in income in income mix to higher tax jurisdictions. For modeling purposes, you should assume that this higher tax rate of 25.5% continues into 2026.... As our typical practice, our adjusted tax rate excludes the tax effect of any acquisition-related costs, as well as excess tax benefit from stock option compensation, as well as other discrete tax-related items.

Specifically, in the fourth quarter and for the full year of 2025, our adjusted tax rate excludes $100 million discrete tax accrual related to notices received by certain subsidiaries in China from relevant tax authorities, challenging certain tax positions taken over the last eight, over up to an eight-year period. We believe these tax positions are appropriate and remain engaged in ongoing-- Absolutely, EPS was $0.93 in the fourth quarter, up 58% compared to the prior year period, and on an adjusted basis, diluted EPS was a record $0.97, an increase by 76% compared to the $0.55 in the fourth quarter of 2024. This was an outstanding result. $0.34, an increase of 74% and 77%.

Quarter was $1.7 billion, or 144% of net income, only 3% income. For the full year of 2025, 126% of net income and free cash flow was a record $4.4 billion, or 103% of net income. Considering the high growth rates we experienced this year, this is a very strong result. From a working capital standpoint, inventory days, day sales outstanding, and payable days were all within our normal range. During the quarter, the company repurchased 1.3 million shares of common stock at an average price of approximately $134.

When combined with our normal quarterly dividend, total capital return to shareholders in the fourth quarter of 2025 was approximately $373 million and was nearly $1.5 billion for the full year of 2025. Total debt at December 31st was $15.5 billion, and net debt was $4.1 billion, which included $7.5 billion from the U.S. bond offering we completed in October in anticipation of the closing of the CCS acquisition. Total liquidity at the end of the fourth quarter was $17.5 billion, which included cash and short-term investments on hand of $11.4 billion, plus availability under our existing credit facilities and $3.1 billion of term loan facilities put in place in anticipation of the CCS acquisition.

In early January, the company closed the CCS acquisition, which was funded with cash on hand, primarily resulting from that October 2025 bond deal, as well as the $3.1 billion of term loan facilities. As a result of the acquisition of CCS, we come from cash on hand to be approximately $200 million, which is reflected in our first quarter 2026 guidance. Adjusting for the impact of the CCS acquisition, our net debt at year-end would have been $14.7 billion, and our liquidity would have been $6.9 billion, which includes- fourth quarter 2025 EBITDA was $2 billion, and our net leverage ratio was 0.6 times at the end of the quarter.

Pro forma net leverage at the end of 2025, including the CCS acquisition, would have been approximately 1.8 times. As of December 31, the company had no outstanding borrowings under its revolving credit facility or its commercial paper programs. I will now turn the call over to Adam, who will provide some commentary on term.

I also would like to offer my best New Year's wishes to all of you here in Connecticut, and it's a real pleasure to talk to you about our fourth quarter and full year achievements. I'll highlight some of those trends across our served markets. We'll make some comments on the outlook for the first quarter, and then, of course, we'll have time for questions. Turning to the fourth quarter, there's no doubt that Amphenol had a strong finish to a very successful 2025, with sales and adjusted diluted earnings per share in the fourth quarter, both exceeding the high end of our guidance. Sales grew by 49% in U.S. dollars and 48% in local currencies, reaching a new record of $6.439 billion.

On an organic basis, our sales increased by 37%, with robust growth across nearly all of our served markets. As Craig mentioned, we booked a record $8.4 billion of orders in the fourth quarter, these orders grew by 68% from prior year and were up 38% sequentially. While orders were strong across the board, there's no doubt that these robust orders were driven primarily by data center demand related, in particular, to artificial intelligence investments being planned by a number of our large customers. We're also pleased in the quarter to have delivered adjusted operating margins of 27.5% in the quarter, which matched our record-setting margins in the third quarter year. This superior profitability is a direct result world. Our adjusted diluted EPS in the quarter grew by $0.97.

Finally, the company generated $1 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively. I can't express enough my pride in our team here in the fourth quarter of our entrepreneurial organization as we continue to perform well amidst a very dynamic environment. We're also very excited in the quarter that we closed on the previously announced acquisition of Trexon. With operations in the U.S. and Europe, and with annual sales of approximately $290 million cable assemblies, primarily for the defense market. We're particularly excited that Trexon further expands our value-add interconnect offering for the defense market, enabling us to offer our customers in this important area a complete solution of high technology interconnect products, really the broadest in the industry of the Amphenol family. In addition, just here in January, business from CommScope, a bit earlier than we had anticipated.

This business, which will be known going forward as CommScope, an Amphenol company, represents a significant expansion of our interconnect capabilities across three of our important end markets. As we add the capabilities for the IT Datacom and communications networks markets, as well as a diverse range of industrial interconnect products for the building connectivity market, which will be included in our industrial segment. We look forward to working closely with the CommScope team as they embrace the Amphenol operating culture, and are really excited about the potential that this significant acquisition can bring to our company. As previously disclosed, we expect CommScope to generate full year 2026 sales of $4.1 billion, and to add $0.15 to Amphenol's 2026 adjusted earnings per share.

As we welcome the outstanding CommScope and Trexon teams to the Amphenol family, we remain confident that our acquisition, our ability to identify and execute upon acquisitions, and then to successfully bring these companies into Amphenol, remains a core competitive advantage. There's no doubt that as our organization has evolved and scaled, so too has our ability to effectively manage a greater number of acquisitions of all sizes. 2025, simply put, 2025 was a uniquely successful market, growing our sales by 52% in U.S. dollars sent organically, reaching a new sales record of $23 billion-plus $23 billion in sales in 2025. We're very proud to have more than doubled Amphenol's revenues in the past four years, a great reflection of our organization's ability to navigate market dynamics while capitalizing on the broad array of opportunities arising across the electronics industry.

For our full year, 2025 adjusted operating margin reached a record 26.2%, and that was a robust increase of 450 basis points from prior year. And this strong level of profitability enabled us to achieve record adjusted diluted EPS of $3.34, an increase of 77% from the 2024 levels. As Craig mentioned, we generated record operating cash flow of $5.4 billion. Clear confirmations of the company's superior execution and disciplined balance sheet management. Very proud that our acquisition program again created great value this year. We completed 5 acquisitions in 2025, including Andrew, our largest acquisition at the time, together with the acquisitions of Trexon, Narda-MITEQ, LifeSync, and Rochester Sensors. Collectively, these acquisitions have added to Amphenol's annualized sales of nearly $2 billion.

In addition, as I just mentioned, and as we announced earlier this month, we also closed on our largest ever acquisition now, which is the CommScope acquisition. What is in common across all these acquisitions is that they enhance our position across a broad array of end markets and deep enabling technologies, all while bringing outstanding and talented individuals into the Amphenol family. We also returned substantial cash to shareholders in 2025, buying back nearly 7.5 million shares under our share repurchase program and increasing our quarterly dividend by 52%. This represented a total return of capital to shareholders of nearly $1.5 billion. As we enter 2026, our agile entrepreneurial organization has created a new position of strength for the company, from which we can continue to drive superior long-term performance.

Now, turning to our served markets, once again, I'm very pleased that the company's end market exposure remains diversified, balanced across all these end markets, creates great value for the company, as wherever there may be new revolutions arising, all while our market. Turning first to the defense market, that market represented 10% of our sales in the fourth quarter and 9% of our sales for the full year 2025. Sales in the fourth quarter grew strongly from prior year, increasing by 44% in U.S. dollars and 43% in local currencies. On an organic basis, sales increased by 29%, with broad-based growth across virtually all defense applications, including a particular radar, space, communications, avionics, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Sequentially, sales increased by 16%, well ahead of our expectations for mid-single-digit growth.

For the full year of 2025, our sales grew by 30% in U.S. dollars and local currency, and by 21% organically, reflecting our superior operational execution, as well as growth across all segments of the defense market. In addition, we're very pleased that our growth in 2025 was really broad-based geographically, reflecting our leading position across the many countries for increasing their defense spending. Looking ahead, we expect sales in the first quarter to increase slightly, largely driven by the benefit of the Trexon acquisition. And we remain encouraged by the company's leading position in the defense interconnect market, where we continue to offer the industry's widest range of high technology products. Amidst the current dynamic geopolitical environment, countries around the world are further expanding their investments into both current offerings as well as the exciting and complementary capabilities from Trexon.

We are positioned better than ever to capitalize on this long-term demand trend. The commercial air market represented 5% of our sales in the quarter and for the full year of 2025. In the fourth quarter, our sales grew by 21%, and on an organic basis, sales increased by 19% from prior year, driven by broad-based strength with virtually all commercial aircraft manufacturers. Sequentially, our sales grew by 10% from the third quarter, well above our expectations coming in 90 days ago. For the full year of 2025, sales in the commercial air market increased by 39% in U.S. dollars and 38% in local currency, as we benefited from accelerating demand across aircraft platforms as well as from acquisitions. Organically, our sales increased by 13% from prior year, reflecting our robust design and positions on a broad array of jetliners.

Looking into the first quarter, we expect sales to moderate seasonally by approximately 10% on a sequential basis. I'm truly proud of our team working in the commercial air market. With the ongoing growth and demand for aircraft, our efforts to expand our product offering, both organically and through our successful acquisition program, continue to pay real dividends. In particular, I just want to note that we're very pleased with the progress of the CIT team, who have truly embraced being part of Amphenol and have driven outstanding results. We look forward to further capitalizing on our expanded range. The industrial market represented 18% of our sales in the quarter and 19% of our sales for the full year of 2025. Our sales grew by 20% in U.S. dollars and 18% in local currencies from prior year.

On an organic basis, we were pleased that sales across the industrial end markets, in particular, medical, industrial instrumentation applications. We also grew. On a sequential basis, sales grew by 2%, better than our expectations. For the full year, 2025, sales grew by 21% in US dollars and 20% in local currency, as we benefited from relatively broad-based growth as well as from acquisition, 10% from prior year. Looking into the first quarter, we expect our sales to increase approximately 20% from these fourth quarter levels, driven by the addition of CommScope's building connectivity business. We remain encouraged by the company's strength across the many diversified segments of this important market. Over the long term, I'm confident in our strategy to expand our high-technology interconnect, antenna, and sensor offering, both organically and through complementary acquisitions.

This strategy has enabled Amphenol to capitalize on the many electronic revolutions that continue to occur across the diversified industrial market and thereby create further opportunities for our outstanding team working in this important market. The automotive market represented 14% of our sales in the fourth quarter and 15% of our sales for the full year. Sales in the fourth quarter grew by 12% in U.S. dollars and 9% in local currencies and organic. In addition, we were pleased that once again, we realized our automotive sales were flat, but this was better than our expectancy. 2025, our sales increased by 8% in U.S. dollars and 7% in local currencies and organic, with growth in all three regions.

As we look into the first quarter, we do expect a seasonal moderation in sales from this quarter's levels of approximately 10%. I remain very proud. There are always areas of uncertainty in the global automotive market. Our organization continues to be focused on driving new design wins with customers who are implementing a wide array of new technologies into their vehicles. We look forward to benefiting from our strength and position in the automotive market for many years to come. The communications networks market represent year 2025. Sales in this market grew from prior year by 120% in US dollars and 119% in local currency, as we benefited from the Andrew acquisition completed earlier last year. Organically, our sales were flat from prior year. On a sequential basis...

For the full year of 2025, our sales in US dollars, in local currency, and by 13%. Plus growth in our products sold into the mobile network operators and wireless infrastructure, we do expect a significant, nearly 50% increase in sales as we benefit from the addition of the CommScope business we would see here. With our expanded range of technology offerings, following the acquisitions of both CommScope and Andrew, we are well-positioned with service provider and OEM customers across the global communications networks market. Our deep and broad range of products, coupled with an expansive manufacturing footprint, have positioned us to support these customers wherever they may be. And as customers in this market continue to drive their systems and networks to higher levels of performance, we look forward to enabling them for many years to come.

Percent of our sales in the quarter and also for the full year, and in the fourth quarter, our sales moderated by 4% in US dollar, local currency, local currency, and organic, as growth in tablets, wearables, and accessories was more than offset by some moderation in sales related to smartphones. Better than our expectations coming into the quarter. For the full year 2025, sales in the mobile devices market increased by 5% in US dollar and organic, and that was really driven by growth across virtually all mobile device applications. Decline of some magnitude, roughly in the 30% range, as we look into the first quarter. But nevertheless, I'm very proud of our team working in the always dynamic mobile devices market, as their agility and reactivity have once again enabled us to capture incremental sales in the quarter.

I'm confident that with our designed in across a broad range of next generation mobile devices, we're well positioned for the long term. Finally, the IT datacom market represented 38% of our sales in the fourth quarter and 36% of our sales for the full year. Sales in the fourth quarter grew by a very strong 110% in U.S. dollar and organic, driven by continued strong demand for our products used in AI applications, together with ongoing growth in our base IT datacom business. On a sequential basis, our sales increased by 8% from the third quarter, which was substantially better than our expectations 90 days ago. This sequential increase was essentially driven by growth in AI-related applications.

For the full year of 2025, our sales in the IT datacom market grew by a very strong 124% in U.S. dollars and organic, as we benefited from strong demand for AI-related applications, as well as accelerated growth in our non-AI IT datacom business. As we look ahead, we expect a low double-digit sequential sales, sales increase in the first quarter, driven by the addition of CommScope. And on an organic basis, we're very pleased to anticipate that we will remain at these very elevated levels in the fourth quarter. We're more encouraged than ever by the company's position in the global IT datacom market.

I, I just can't emphasize enough what an outstanding job our team has done, not only in securing future business on these next-generation IT systems with a really broad array of customers, but in executing upon that demand here in 2025. It's no doubt that the revolution in AI continues to create a unique opportunity for Amphenol, given our leading high-speed and power interconnect products. With now the addition of CommScope, we have the broadest range of high-speed power engines in these next-generation systems. This creates. Turning to our outlook and, of course, rates. For the first quarter, we expect sales in the range of $6.9 billion-$7 billion and adjusted diluted EPS in the range of $0.91-$0.93.

This would represent significant sales growth from prior year of 43%-45% and adjusted diluted EPS growth of 44%-48%. I would note that our Q1 guidance includes approximately $900 million in sales and $0.02 of adjusted EPS accretion from the CommScope acquisition. I remain confident in the ability of our outstanding management team to adapt to the many opportunities and challenges present in the current environment, while continuing to grow Amphenol's market position, all while driving sustainable and strong profitability over the long term. Finally, I'd like to take this opportunity to first thank our customers for the trust that they put in us, and also to thank outstanding efforts here in the fourth quarter and in the full year 2025. And with that, operator, we'd be happy to take any questions.

Question and answer period will now begin. Please limit to one question per caller. To ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. We have a question from William Stein from Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the very strong results and outlook. First, I'd like to ask about the book-to-bill. Adam, that, I imagine, must have in it some extended duration orders in the backlog, and I wonder whether that's entirely concentrated or mostly concentrated in IT datacom. And also, if you can talk about what gives rise to that level of orders, is it based on getting in line from a sort of a lead time perspective, or is this based perhaps on sort of minimum order requirement in order to, you know, meet CapEx requirements that you have? Any color on that would be really helpful. Thank you.

Well, thank you very much, Will, of the year in 2025. And you know, I'll say a couple of things, really broadly strong, across all of our end markets, was at or above one, and in a few cases, significantly above one. Related to AI investments was a primary company to achieve orders of more than $8 billion in the quarter was certainly a milestone for all of us. Look, I think that, as I mentioned, and I think Craig alluded to, that we have seen customers open up their order window, for, in particular, related to significant places. This is not because of kind of getting in line, so to speak. I mean, I think our team's done a fabulous job.

of ramping up, I mean, as evidenced by the extraordinary growth that we achieved last year, 124% year-over-year growth for the full year in IT Datacom. There's no doubt that our team has done an amazing job of ramping up to our customers' needs. But at the same time, technology involved in a lot of these next generation products, really pushing the limits of these systems and pushing the limits of the products. You know, these products do require, in certain cases, more automation, which fortunately, we do the vast majority of that in-house, which has been an amazing competitive advantage because of these, you know, sometimes outsized investment requirements and they share the risk of those investments.

We do that in a variety of some of the spending contributing to the spending and that give us the comfort to make those investments and drive the ramp up. You use the word minimum order. I wouldn't call it minimum order, but rather it's giving us the comfort through their own commitments to Amphenol that we should then make the commitments in capital and, you know, using Amphenol's hard-earned, hard-earned cash and the time of our teams to make those investments. And I think it's a great sign. It's a sign, number one, of our customers' intentions and their plans, which are very robust. It's a sign, number two, of our customers' commitment and confidence in the Amphenol organization.

So no doubt about it, I think it's a positive, and, you know, we look forward to continuing to drive great success in that market in the future.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Amit Daryanani, from Evercore ISI. Please, go ahead.

Yep, thanks a lot. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Adam, you know, post the CCS deal, can you just talk about the breadth of your offerings when it comes to serving these AI infrastructure customers? You folks have done really well on a standalone basis, but, you know, there's this view, I think, out there that Amphenol is driven more by copper, and as we move more to optics and fiber, there's a risk here. So maybe hoping you can spend some time to help us appreciate the range of offerings you're going to have post CCS, and how do you see these offerings that you get from CCS really being complementary to what Amphenol has today? Thank you.

Yeah. Thank, well, thank you very much for a long time, and it's kind of ironic. You know, we just celebrated the 20th anniversary of another foundational acquisition for Amphenol, which was the acquisition of the Teradyne Connection Systems business 20 years ago, which really catapulted Amphenol into a leadership position in high-speed copper interconnect products. Maybe 10 on the outside and over those excellent capabilities that TCS brought us, the people at that same 20th anniversary. And that has put us in a real leadership position as our customers drive their systems to higher and higher speeds. Now, we have always been a player in fiber optics, I mean, going all the way back to, you know, the early foundations of what a fiber optic connector was, you know, half a century ago or more.

But there's no question that with CCS, just like at the time with CCS 20 years ago, CCS vaults us into a position of breadth and depth in the technology around fiber optic interconnect, that is a real expansion of our capabilities. And so when we go to customers and we talk about data center applications, or when we go to communications networks customers and talk about their next generation network planning, we can now have that conversation across the entirety of the internet of the interconnect spectrum. As they think about the various trade-offs that a customer goes through every time they think about their specific system architecture, you know, do they want to use a high-speed copper interconnect here? What's the power situation?

How do they bring power into their system, into the rack, into a data center, into a network? And then how do they use fiber optics, you know, which have, of course, fabulous traits, in particular, around high bandwidth, long distance communications. And customers are making these trade-offs every day, and now with the CCS acquisition, what I'm so excited about is the unique position it puts Amphenol in as a company to be able to go in and talk to that entire spectrum of interconnect. Our customers just with them to figure out the best way to do that, whether they're getting a sip somewhere or anything in between. And I think now our interconnect products that ultimately allow us to be years and many generations to come.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Luke Junk from Baird. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks for taking my question. Adam, maybe to bridge on that, the comments you just made, I'm just wondering if you could maybe speak to integration first steps at CommScope, and, you know, like you mentioned, the deal got closed a little sooner than you had expected. Just how important is that in terms of bringing this new, fuller, broader portfolio to Baird and data center, especially?

Thanks very much, Luke. I'll answer the second question. I mean, you know, you get one of these deals done, you got to get a lot of approvals in a lot of different places, and I think our team did a great job of working with the various authorities to get those approvals a bit faster. And I'm really grateful also to the folks who sold us this company, and, you know, they've renamed their company now, and I wish them all the best. It's really a great experience, I think, for all sides, and we worked really well together to bring this deal to fruition. Quite a bit faster than, you know, we thought it was gonna be at the time that we originally announced the deal.

I would say the speed. I don't think the fact that we closed it early in the quarter versus end of the-- announce the deal. You can imagine that our customers around the world. And so we've been having those conversations for quite some time already. So that word integration is not a word in the Amphenol lexicon. And but what we do talk about is letting them, because it's a fabulous organization. I mean, the leadership of the company is still the same leadership. The people are still the same people. We're not parachuting people in, we're not merging and morphing things into one or another, synergizing and restructuring.

We're actually working with the team on day one to say: What are the opportunities that now that you're part of Amphenol, you could hope to achieve that you maybe couldn't have done as part of your former company? I was so happy, you know, on the first day of the acquisition, that right after we announced it, I went to really one of the nerve centers of the company. As you know, you know, the CommScope, we've talked about this. In many ways, it's a collection of extraordinary, iconic businesses in itself by Frank Drendel as a supplier into the broadband networks market. The SYSTIMAX business, which is an amazing, iconic business, selling into building connectivity, and the ADC Telecommunications, which was a long legacy leader in fiber optic interconnect.

And so I was really happy to go to Shakopee, Minnesota facility of this company, and meet with these engineers and the product managers and the folks leading that business. And I can tell you, they're so excited to be part of Amphenol. And we broadcast a welcome around the world, and the just a kind of a almost a universal excitement to be part of this company called Amphenol, to become Amphenolians, as they all now know that word. And so, you know, the first steps is, you know, meet the people, get excited, find opportunities to go accelerate the business, and that's all well underway today.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Wamsi Mohan.

Yes, thank you so much. Adam, I was hoping you could of flattish organically, excluding CCS. With, you know, enterprise-centric market, double-digit decline and the AI workloads to grow, is that the right way to think about it? And within the AI context, is that more programs for you, more units in existing programs, any color you can share around what you're hearing from your larger AI customers about very strong orders?

Yeah. Well, thanks very much, Wamsi. Look, I mean, it's hard for me to give too much of a parse of what that flat organic means. I mean, you're correct. Traditionally, the base IT datacom cycle would be down in the first quarter. So I think probably there's some of that here as well. But look, in terms of our ongoing growth in AI, I mean, I want to emphasize one thing, which is just the breadth of that business. You know, we have an enormous position with a lot of different customers up and down the stack of AI, you know, from the folks who are making the investments, the big web-scale folks, the...

And otherwise, including like, you know, the cloud, the neo cloud, whatever you guys all call these folks, the equipment manufacturers, all the way down to, of course, the significant companies who are designing the chips and the architecture around those chips. I mean, I will say that, you know, as we come out of 2025, that breadth is reflected in the fact that we didn't have any 10% customers in 2025 around that business. And so, as our customers think about the forward potential of AI, I mean, I think there's a few factors. Number one is their investment plans are all going up. There's no doubt that there continues to be a very robust plan of continuing to drive accelerated computing at a very strong level.

There's upgrades of the technology embedded in those data centers, which requires a higher technology, more complex, higher content degree of interconnect. We're also very excited that not only are we participating, you know, as we have traditionally, bringing the power in, power to the racks and the like, the data communication within racks, within adjacent racks, but also now with CommScope, participating in the broader fiber optic opportunity associated with those data centers. You know, there's no doubt that that that-

Hi. Thanks for taking my question, and happy New Year. Customers opening up their order books a bit when it pertains to your IT Datacom business. And the reason I ask is we saw one of the competitors in the space, Corning, announce an agreement with Meta securing supply. So are you seeing hyperscalers or customers on that front come to you to sort of engage in those discussions to secure supply, and what that would mean for your investment pro, sort of support for this business?

Yeah. Look, no doubt, we had very strong orders, and I would tell you that the CommScope business, as we call it now, we're not calling it anymore CCS, it has also had very strong orders. And, for sure, I mean, there have been plenty of announcements and, you know, by really wonderful companies out there, and, you know, we're really proud to have also been in the public eye of late, is participating. I mean, we've talked about the fact that their exposure in that area... You know, I would also just point out, you know, at the time we acquired, and we announced the acquisition then of CCS-...

We talked about acquiring a company of roughly $3.6 billion in sales at a 26% EBITDA margin, and that, you know, implied a price of just over 11x that we paid for it. By the time we closed, we're now talking about a business of more than $4 billion in annualized sales. That is a great momentum, strong orders, positive book-to-bill, and all of that, and obviously implies as well that this is a great deal for Amphenol and really the high single digits in terms of an EBITDA multiple. So I think it's a great company with great prospects, and yes, does see those same trends.

In terms of investments, I mean, look, I we don't see vis-à-vis investments with CCS, but I will say this, and that's something we've talked about in the past: it's a different thing for CCS to be a part of a company that, you know, for very obvious reasons, was somewhat balance sheet constrained, and now they're part of Amphenol, where we're more than willing to help them by making prudent investments that allow great returns and allow them to capitalize upon the opportunities in the marketplace. And so it's not that we're just going to give them all blank checks here, but you can imagine that it's a different environment for CCS in terms of their ability to grow into the opportunities that-

Thank you. Our next question comes from Andrew. Please go ahead.

Or, yeah, good afternoon. You know, maybe just shifting away from the AI and IT Datacom story for a minute. You know, I think another kind of underlying trend this quarter or a positive thing we're seeing is some momentum in, you know, a lot of other areas in your markets are pretty beat up. And I'm thinking, like, industrial, automotive, mobile devices, specifically, the markets seem to be turning a corner. Where would you say that's most pronounced? Maybe what surprised you in the quarter, if anything? You know, where do you see some of these sort of battered end markets going in 2026?

Yeah. Well, thanks very much, Andrew. I mean, there's no doubt. I mean, we saw really broad-based strength through the year and as we finished the year. And I mentioned in my prepared remarks that we're especially encouraged, if you take automotive and industrial as two pretty broad global markets, that we saw growth organically in both of those markets across all of the territories that they operate in. And I would highlight there, in particular, Europe.

I mean, you know, the world has been so down on Europe for so long, and I think we've started to see in our company, especially in the second half of the year, that our teams in Europe who have held their hill and have continued to pursue opportunities to gain market share, to enable our customers who are doing really amazing things in Europe, in automotive and in industrial for the full year. And I would even say that in the fourth quarter, amazingly, our strongest organic growth in automotive was in Europe. So, you know, that's definitely a different thing than we've been talking about and that the world's been talking about for some time. And I think we're excited about our continued position there.

And mobile devices, you know, it's a different thing. I wouldn't call that as much of a regional market, but there's just a lot of innovation. Look, I always start the year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and I think I even had the chance to run across a couple of you guys. And I go to that show always because I find it so inspirational. Interesting is, everybody is talking about AI and the build-out of the networks of AI, and the maybe even more exciting, or at least equally exciting, is what's gonna mean that we're gonna have this ubiquitous, accelerated compute capability all the way to the edge of technology? And when you walk around CCS, you see it.

Now, look, I don't know, you know, what is that all going to mean. I personally am not gonna be front of the line to buy, like, an AI-enabled toilet. But, you know, well, one day, as a former fan of Star Wars, as we come to the almost 50-year anniversary, will we each have our own C-3PO? Things are possible. And I think the places like in automotive with autonomous driving, in industrial, where you see so many different things happening on the edge, where things get smart, robotics and the like, and mobile devices, you know, those three markets that you mentioned, I think each of those stands to have a fundamental step function in their capabilities and their potential because of what's happening today in the build-out of this AI network.

And I think long term, that's something that I'm really excited about. And I think back on the other revolutions, like the microprocessor, the internet, the mobile internet, and the like, and each of those had later on, a carry-on benefit to those markets: automotive, industrial, mobile devices, and the like.

Thank you. Fox Advisors, please go ahead.

Hi. Big picture, Adam, you've obviously just completed a really strong... Looking at, can you just sort of talk about, you know, sort of the management challenges? You mentioned adding more automation, and I'm wondering about, like, higher metals prices, supply chain constraints. How is—how do you look at this in terms of new challenges, especially as your demand is broadening out? Thanks.

Yeah. Well, thanks. Look, this is not an easy thing to do, to grow a company by 38% organically, let alone those operations within the company who have grown by so much more than that. I mean, you can imagine we've got folks who've more than doubled the size of their individual operation. Always been the core of why we are able to do the fact that we rely on what is now 100 operating groups. You know, the CommScope, we talked earlier about the quote. Who ran it is now a group general manager of Amphenol, and he's running his team as he ran it before. And you know, you list a couple of things: supply chain, the cost of metals, which are extraordinary. You know, there geopolitics, you know, whatever, shipping. I mean, there's so many things.

And, and I think we don't fixate on one or another of those things. What I fixate on is making sure that if you're a general manager in Amphenol, you've got all the authority to deal with whatever comes your way. And, and that empowerment and enablement of people to go figure it out. And yes, if they need some help, we're here. We've got this amazing organization driving collaboration, communication across the company. But at the end of the day, the buck stops on 145 desks. And, and if that means doubling the size of your business, figuring out how to set up factories in four different countries, setting up automation machines that, that we've never built before, but now can build extraordinarily, probably one of the world's best automation companies that, that, that exists, they make it happen. They make it happen.

And so I think when I think about growing the company as we have, doubling the size of Amphenol, really in the last four years, serving that entrepreneurial culture, and I'm so proud that we've done it. Which I'm not gonna say is the thing that created that doubling, but three divisions with three division presidents, when we expanded the number of operating groups in the company, all with the goal of securing, strengthening, and scaling that unique entrepreneurial culture of Amphenol. And I don't think it's a coincidence that we took that step four years ago, and now here we are, four years hence, celebrating that the management challenges, which are countless, on every day, thousands of challenges that our people face, they're equipped to deal with them no matter what they are.

That gives me not only a confidence for the future, but enthusiasm for the future. Because whatever comes along, we know for sure the world is not predictable.

Happy New Year to all of you as well. So maybe you could speak a bit more on the margin outlook. The company sustained a record high EBIT margin, again, in the fourth quarter at 27.5%. But there's a number of factors, as you go into 2026. You have some big deals, company is growing quite fast. So any color you can share on how to think about incremental margins this year and some of the key puts and takes? Thanks.

Yeah. Thanks, Mark. Appreciate the question. Yeah, I mean, I'll start off by just really quickly addressing metals. I mean, Adam just mentioned kind of a bit about it, but, you know, from a margin perspective, I mean, you know, certainly we're working hard. I mean, metals are certainly something that we have as part of our cost of sales. It's not a significant cost that when you kind of take into account the significant value we create within the facility, but certainly it certainly has an impact.

I mean, it's like any other cost, you know, that we work through, and the general managers do a great job of working through kind of offsets to those cost increases, through anything from design of products to, you know, things in the factory, to working with vendors, to a whole host of different things. So I wouldn't say that, at least as of now, we see having any significant impact on kind of our margin outlook as we're moving into 2026, and certainly hasn't had any evident impact, certainly with these record, you know, operating margins that we've seen here in the fourth quarter and for the full year.

You know, as we move into the first quarter, I mean, the main puts and takes here, I mean, organically, we have a slight sequential, you know, decrease in our sales, which is normal seasonality that we typically see, you know, during our first quarter. And we're converting kind of in the mid-thirties, even the lower mid-thirties in regards to that organic change. And that's typical given our profitability levels and kind of where I would expect. So the company is really doing a great job managing, you know, a seasonal sequential decrease. And, you know, the bigger impact on our margins in the first quarter really is just the impact of CCS.

We talked about CCS, being in the high teens for the full year, and from an operating margin basis to kind of where we expect. I would tell you in the first quarter, just because of the seasonality of their sales and the lower sales in the first quarter, that their operating margins are just a bit under kind of that high teens rate. So they're having, you know, a bit over 100 basis point impact on our margins in the first quarter. You know, as we progress throughout the year, we're not guiding in 2026, but certainly we expect normal kind of, you know, operating margins. We expect that kind of 30%, you know, kind of targeted conversion margins that we target on, on, you know, incremental sales as we grow.

You know, with CCS, again, we target that getting up to over time, up to the company average, and certainly that will be an adder over time to our operating margin potential. So, I'm really, you know, happy with, you know, our operating margins that we've achieved in 2025, and certainly very optimistic as to where we are in 2026.

From Asiya Merchant, from Citigroup. Please go ahead.

So great. Thank you very much. Just, you know, given the strong order book momentum and, you know, the AI momentum that you guys also talked about, just, Craig, if you could just talk about CapEx and how we should be thinking about investments into 2026, as a result of that. Sorry if I missed that earlier.

... No, no. Thanks for the question. No, we didn't talk about it specifically earlier. Yeah, no, from a capital perspective, and as we talked about in 2025, we were certainly, you know, spending at a bit higher level. But honestly, with the growth we have seen, we kind of ended the year just a bit over 4%, which, you know, 3%-4% we say is our historic range. We ended the year just a bit over that 4%. You know, and certainly opportunities for growth, and certainly we've had these strong orders here.

We're into that 4% range, and certainly we have quarters that certainly exceed that 4%, for capital spending into the, you know, spending kind of in our, you know, historic range and roughly there is really just a testament to the, you know, just the discipline of the organization, the ability to, you know, to spend wisely and really support the growth, the significance of growth that we're seeing still with, you know, pretty reasonable spending, I think. So, and I think I would expect, you know, more of the same in 2026. And as we continue to grow, I think that 3%-4% range will continue to be that.

I think these growth rates are a little higher, I would say that will be probably that towards the upper end of that 4% range and, you know, give or take in a quarter.

Thanks. Good morning. Just, just a quick one for me, relating to, circling back to CommScope and, and that business. I, I know it's still early days in being the official owners, but, any sense of how large their order book looks here, going forward?

Earlier, that CommScope also had a nicely positive book-to-bill, has a positive order book from that perspective.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Guy Hardwick from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Hi. Hi, good afternoon. Just a quick one on the order book. Obviously, it's a fantastic result of $8.4 billion. Just how do we square that with the Q1 revenue guidance of Q4 order book? Didn't include CCS, but I assume it's assumed Trexon. Is it the orders, the window that you talked about, and is that $8.4 billion really kind of a sustainable number over the next few quarters?

Well, thanks very much, Guy. I mean, look, I think I talked about the fact that we have seen customers. And in addition, as we continue to ramp up, there is that kind of confidence that give us in a variety of ways, including through orders. I'm not going to guide to what our orders are going to be in a given quarter. I mean, but these were really outstanding orders, and they will carry through longer than just here in the first quarter.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Scott Graham from Seaport Research Partners. Please go ahead.

Hey, good afternoon. Congratulations on the print. I... My question is about defense. You know, obviously, the current administration's thinking is, at some point, we need to push the budget up to $1.5 trillion dollars that are maybe not subject to, you know, Iron Dome. I don't know how much- how closely you've looked at some of... Is there anything that you see that, you know, maybe doesn't give you maybe full dibs or, or most dibs on that? And then on the other side of it, are you concerned at all about the administration's, you know, sort of negative rhetoric around with the, with NATO and what that might do to some of your international-

Thanks much, Scott. Look, I think as the leader in defense interconnect, I wouldn't tell you that we take that for granted, but do we have dibs on this market? We got dibs on this market. I mean, and we have that because of a broad array of technologies and deep investments that we have made. I mean, the one particular related here to, we'll talk about US, and then we'll talk global, is that we have continued to double down, number one, on technology innovation, and number two, on scaling our capacity to enable the defense industry to continue to meet the levels that they need to.

And so whether that means, you know, today's budget, rest of our offering, coupled with the depth of our capacity and capability, all programs, and, you know, you mentioned a few programs, add to that. But the acquisition of Trexon, while only... It really does expand an enormous additional opportunity and additional in the discrete connector solutions, a broad array. Being able to support the value-add products across programs, across applications, land, sea, air, and everything in between. I think Trexon really rounds out our position and expands the potential of what we can do substantially. Our approach as a company has always been to be kind of an operation when we operate around the world. We operate, you know, 360... We don't have expats, period. We operate our company as a local company.

So when we're in France, we're a local French company. When we're in the UK, we're a local UK company, in Denmark, in Germany, in Italy, or wherever that may be. And that focus market, you know, our defense position in Europe is very, very strong. We've had for years, in terms of, of the strength of our business. You know, I'm never gonna say that you're insulated from anything, but the way that we've structured our company, the culture around our company, how we interact with our customers, is as a local partner in those places. And we do that in all of our businesses. That's just how we run the equally interesting world that we are in today.

The way that we've always operated is a pretty good way to operate in today's world, and I think that will, in many ways, protect us from any politics that could inject themselves into this world... Our customers at the end of the day want the best product, and they want it at the time that they need it. And if we can focus on continuing to do that and do it locally, I think our defense business has a great future.

Amphenol (APH) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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