This AI Stock Smashed Earnings. Oh Yeah, It’s an Industrial Company, Too.

Amphenol designs and manufactures connectors and interconnect systems, antenna solutions, sensors, and high-speed cable. Coming into Wednesday trading, shares were up 79% year to date. (Photo by Michael Bocchieri/Getty Images)

Amphenol smashed through third-quarter earnings expectations—and the stock flew.

Wednesday morning, Amphenol, a maker of electronic components, announced quarterly earnings per share of 93 cents from sales of $6.2 billion. Wall Street was looking for EPS of 79 cents from sales of $5.5 billion.

Results were far better than the company’s guidance. In July, management guided third-quarter EPS to a range of 77 cents to 79 cents, and sales to a range of $5.4 billion to $5.5 billion.

A year ago, in the third quarter of 2024, Amphenol reported earnings per share of 50 cents from sales of $4 billion.

For the fourth quarter, Amphenol expects earnings per share to land between 89 cents and 91 cents. The sales range is $6 billion to $6.1 billion. Wall Street currently projects EPS of 80 cents from sales of $5.7 billion.

“We are pleased to have closed the third quarter of 2025 with record sales and [earnings per share], both significantly exceeding the high end of our guidance,” said CEO R. Adam Norwitt in a news release. “Sales increased from prior year by 53%, driven by strong organic growth in virtually all of our end markets, including exceptional organic growth in the IT datacom market.”

Shares traded as high as $135.94 and closed at $128.93, up 3.6%, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively.

“Another record quarter,” wrote Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani. “Amphenol continues to shock and awe with broad-based strength across all end markets.”

Daryanani rates shares Buy and has a $150 price target.

Amphenol has been enjoying higher demand from the massive buildout of AI data centers, which doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

It’s helped shares, too. Coming into Wednesday trading, Amphenol stock was up 79% year to date and up 86% over the past 12 months.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com