Amphenol CEO Won't Say 'Synergies' About CommScope, Even As Its 2026 Sales Outlook Hits $5.1 Billion
Adam Norwitt credited ownership culture for CommScope's gains, while the CFO put its operating margin in the low 20s.
Amphenol now expects CommScope to deliver $5.1 billion in 2026 sales and add 18 cents to adjusted earnings per share, Chairman and CEO Adam Norwitt said on the company's third-quarter earnings call Wednesday. When a JPMorgan analyst asked about "synergies," Norwitt said that is a word Amphenol does not use.
A word Amphenol doesn't use
Norwitt said he would not repeat the analyst's word, which he said "started with an S and ended with an energies." He added that it is "not a word we use in Amphenol," because the company does not believe it knows CommScope's business better than CommScope does.
He rejected the idea of taking "one and one" and making 1.5 by doing the work of two people with one. The gains, he said, come from pushing ownership and entrepreneurship down through the organization. Margin, he said, is "just price minus cost," and it tends to rise when the control of both sits under one person.
He also said Amphenol's balance sheet lets CommScope invest, and that Amphenol is encouraging the unit to ask for capital and helping it expand abroad.
From $3.6 billion to $5.1 billion
Norwitt said CommScope was a $3.6 billion company at signing, so the new outlook is $1.5 billion above that. At closing, management had expected $4.1 billion, a billion less than the outlook now.
CommScope's IT Datacom sales, which serve data centers and AI, should more than double in 2026 and make up roughly half of its full-year sales, versus around a third last year, he said. Chief Financial Officer Craig Lampo said CommScope's operating margin is already in the low 20s, which was the corporate average a couple of years ago or less. He said he has more confidence than at the start of the year that profitability will reach the company average over time.
The quarter around it
Amphenol, which makes connectors, sensors, antennas and cable for markets from defense to data centers, reported record third-quarter sales of $10.2 billion, up 65%, and adjusted earnings of 80 cents per share. Orders were a record $12.17 billion.
The company guided fourth-quarter sales to $10.3 billion to $10.5 billion and full-year sales to $36.9 billion to $37.1 billion. That outlook excludes three acquisitions that have not yet closed. The board also approved a 20% dividend increase to 15 cents a share and a new three-year, $4 billion buyback.
Amphenol's market value stood at $192.9 billion in Wednesday trading, and Lampo said CommScope's margin still has room to climb toward the company average.
Sources
- Amphenol Hikes Shareholder Returns With Dividend and Buybacks — benzinga.com
- Amphenol Reports Record Third Quarter 2026 Results and Announces Dividend Increase and New Stock Repurchase Program – Company Announcement - FT.com — Financial Times
- Amphenol jumps on Q3 revenue surge; guidance tops consensus — seekingalpha.com
- AI Data Center Supplier Amphenol Jumps On Earnings Beat | Investor's Business Daily — investors.com
- Amphenol raises dividend by 20% to $0.15 (NYSE:APH) | Seeking Alpha — seekingalpha.com
