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Amphenol Rides on Communications Growth: Can AI Sustain Momentum?

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Key Takeaways

  • Amphenol's Communications Solutions revenues surged 85% year over year to $5.38 billion.
  • AI-related products drove virtually all sequential IT datacom growth, with Q3 gains expected.
  • CommScope is now expected to generate $4.6 billion in 2026 sales, up from $4.1 billion.

Amphenol (APH - Free Report) is benefiting from robust growth in its Communications Solutions segment, supported by accelerating demand for high-speed interconnect products used in AI infrastructure and contributions from its acquisition program. In the second quarter of 2026, Communications Solutions revenues surged 85% year over year to $5.38 billion and increased 42% organically. The segment accounted for roughly 62% of Amphenol’s total revenues, making it the company’s largest growth engine. The year-over-year growth was primarily driven by outsized IT datacom growth, particularly AI-related applications, alongside strength in industrial, mobile devices and automotive markets. 

AI infrastructure remains the biggest growth engine and is helping the company fight off competition from the likes of TE Connectivity (TEL - Free Report) and Bel Fuse (BELFB - Free Report) . IT datacom represented 43% of Amphenol’s second-quarter sales, with revenues rising 89% year over year and 63% organically. Sequentially, IT datacom revenues climbed 22%, with virtually all of the sequential growth stemming from AI-related products. APH expects another mid-teens sequential increase in the third quarter of 2026, supported by accelerating investments in AI data centers and stronger enterprise and cloud demand for traditional IT datacom equipment.

Amphenol’s broad portfolio across high-speed copper, fiber-optic and power interconnects is strengthening its exposure to the AI buildout. The company noted that customers increasingly require all three technologies as computing architectures become denser and more power-intensive. The CommScope acquisition is further strengthening Communications Solutions, particularly in optical interconnects. CommScope generated slightly more than $1.2 billion in second-quarter sales, while its IT datacom business nearly doubled year over year. Amphenol now expects CommScope to generate $4.6 billion of sales in 2026, up from its earlier expectation of $4.1 billion.

Higher Communications Solutions revenues are also supporting profitability. Segment operating margin expanded to 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026 from 30.6% a year earlier, benefiting primarily from operating leverage on significantly higher organic volumes. This combination of accelerating AI connectivity demand, rising optical exposure through CommScope and strength across several other end markets should continue to support Communications Solutions as an important growth driver for Amphenol.     

For the third quarter of 2026, APH expects sales of $9.3-$9.4 billion. The range implies year-over-year growth of 50-52%, assuming current market conditions and constant exchange rates. Adjusted earnings are projected between $1.40 and $1.42 per share, indicating growth of 51-53% from the prior-year quarter.

How Rivals Stack Up Against APH

TE Connectivity is challenging Amphenol across high-speed data and power connectivity by expanding its exposure to AI infrastructure. TEL’s Digital Data Networks (DDN) business is benefiting from hyperscaler investments in GPU clusters, with year-to-date DDN orders up more than 70%. In the third quarter of fiscal 2026, DDN sales increased 34% year over year, supported by demand for high-speed copper connectivity, while higher-voltage architectures are expanding opportunities in power connectivity. TE Connectivity estimates that power already represents roughly one-third of its DDN business, giving it exposure to both data transmission and rising power requirements inside AI racks.

Bel Fuse is a smaller but growing challenger. The company’s Industrial Technology & Data Solutions (ITDS) segment includes power supplies, fuses, integrated connector modules and transformers used in networking, data centers and AI applications. In the second quarter of 2026, ITDS revenues jumped 31.1% year over year to $100.2 million, while Data Solutions revenues surged 55%, aided by the beginning of a ramp tied to high-performance computing project wins. The dataMate acquisition also expanded Bel Fuse’s Data Solutions portfolio.

APH’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Amphenol’s shares have surged 24.8% year to date, outperforming the broader Zacks Computer & Technology sector’s return of 21.8%.

APH Stock’s Price Performance

 

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

 

Amphenol shares are trading at a premium, as suggested by a Value Score of D. In terms of the forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E), APH is trading at 27.47X, higher than the broader sector’s 19.95X.

APH Stock is Overvalued

 

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Amphenol’s 2026 earnings is pegged at $2.66 per share, up three cents over the past 30 days. The figure indicates a 59.3% jump year over year.
 

 

 

APH currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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