Start here if you're new
what it is
Avnet buys electronic parts in bulk and sells them to companies building hardware.
how it gets paid
Last year Avnet made $22.2B in revenue. Semiconductors was the main engine at $11.0B, or 50% of sales.
why growth slowed
Revenue fell 6.6% last year. In particular, the company saw a pickup in compute orders after a previous slowdown, coupled with strengthening demand in the aerospace and defense arm.
what just happened
Avnet beat by a wide margin, with $1.05 in EPS versus $0.75 expected.
At a glance
B++ balance sheet — above average — nothing keeping you up at night
45/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
22.4x trailing p/e — priced about right
2.3% dividend yield — cash in your pocket every quarter
8.0% return on capital — nothing to write home about
xvary composite: 74/100 — average
What they do
Avnet buys electronic parts in bulk and sells them to companies building hardware.
Avnet is not a brand play. It is the plumbing. You get 14,869 employees moving inventory, shipping, and credit across 94% Electronic Components and 6% Farnell sales. Your factory does not want 12 suppliers. It wants one shipment that shows up on time. That is why switching vendors hurts even when the margin is only 5.0%.
How they make money
$22.2B
annual revenue · their business grew -6.6% last year
Semiconductors
$11.0B
+11.0%
Interconnect and passives
$6.2B
+8.0%
Electromechanical hardware
$3.6B
+6.0%
Farnell kits and test gear
$1.4B
+0.0%
The products that matter
distributes electronic components
Electronic Components Distribution
$22.2B revenue · +4.2%
it's the whole $22.2B business, and the reason every margin decimal matters. At a 1.9% net margin, you do not need a collapse to feel pain.
100% of revenue shown
Key numbers
22.4x
trailing p/e
You are paying 22.4 times trailing earnings for a distributor with a 2.5% net margin. That is not cheap for a low-margin business.
$22.2B
annual revenue
This is the size of the machine. A 1% move is $222M, which is large enough to matter.
2.3%
dividend yield
You get paid 2.3% to wait. That helps, but it does not fix a weak operating model.
5.0%
operating margin
Avnet keeps 5.0 cents of operating profit on each dollar of sales. Thin margins make every bad quarter louder.
Financial health
B++
strength
- balance sheet grade B++ — above average financial health
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- price stability 75 / 100
- long-term debt $2.5B (33% of capital)
- net profit margin 2.5% — keeps 2 cents of every dollar in revenue
- return on equity 10% — $0.10 profit for every $1 investors have put in
B++ — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
You invested $10,000 in AVT 3 years ago → it's now worth $15,160.
The index would have given you $14,540.
source: institutional data · total return
What just happened
beat estimates
Avnet beat by a wide margin, with $1.05 in EPS versus $0.75 expected.
Sales were $5.9B, and gross margin stayed at 10.5%. The beat came from better execution, not a miracle.
$5.9B
revenue
$1.05
eps
10.5%
gross margin
the number that mattered
The $1.05 EPS beat the $0.75 estimate by 40%, which shows Avnet can still squeeze profit out of a 10.5% gross margin.
-
shares of avnet have advanced more than 30% in price since our december review.this move likely reflects the company’s return to double-digit earnings growth in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, following elevated customer inventory levels and weak business conditions in the past two years.
-
on an apples-toapples basis, adjusted share earnings of $1.05 compared favorably with the $0.87 tally (see footnote b) registered in the year-ago period, while sales advanced 12% and came in ahead of management’s guidance.
-
the bulk of these gains can be attributed to an 11% sales advance in the core electronics components business (93% of total) thanks to strong spending in data center and ai-related programs.in particular, the company saw a pickup in compute orders after a previous slowdown, coupled with strengthening demand in the aerospace and defense arm.
-
meanwhile, last year’s restructuring efforts at the smaller farnell business supported better margins and profitability, as well as a 24% jump in sales.this was driven by new product introductions and a continued recovery in demand for on-board components (namely in europe), with support from cross-selling initiatives.
-
we look for a strong top- and bottom-line recovery in fiscal 2026.avnet finished the quarter with an above-parity book-to-bill ratio (above 1.0 means new orders are coming in faster than products are being shipped out), indicating a positive sign for future revenue. it received $150 million of high-demand memory and storage inventory at the end of the quarter that was converted into revenue in january. we think avnet will continue to come out of a slump with our projection of double-digit sales and earnings gains this year. higher growth in the americas and emea regions should be met with a more gradual uptick in asia, as customers renew investments in electronics and infrastructure.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the top threat is the $268M legal award hitting a business with only 1.9% net margins.
med
legal award economics
$268M is not small when annual revenue is $22.2B but profit margin is just 1.9%. In a higher-margin business, you absorb that. Here, you feel it.
Based on the current margin, the award equals roughly 64% of one year's net income.
med
inventory and demand whiplash
This company just lived through elevated customer inventories and weak conditions, and its earnings predictability score is only 45/100. That is analyst-speak for a business that can surprise you in the wrong direction.
Full-year EPS fell from $5.43 to $2.75 before the current recovery started to show up.
med
margin stays too thin
Latest quarterly margin was 1.1%. Even if revenue improves, tiny margins leave little room for freight costs, pricing pressure, or execution misses.
A business keeping one to two cents of each sales dollar does not need a disaster to disappoint shareholders.
a legal hit this size does not break a $22.2B company, but it matters a lot more when the business only earns about $422M a year at a 1.9% net margin.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
trend
book-to-bill staying above 1.0
orders were recently coming in faster than products shipped. If that holds, the recovery has legs. If it slips back, the bounce can fade fast.
risk
appeals and cash impact from the legal award
$268M is manageable for the enterprise, but it is too large to ignore in a business built on 1.9% margins.
metric
quarterly margin above 1.1%
sales recovery matters less than conversion. If margin does not improve from 1.1%, earnings leverage stays limited.
earnings
whether the $150M january revenue pull-forward repeats
one month helped by late-arriving inventory is useful. A second quarter of healthy order flow would be better evidence.
Analyst rankings
short-term outlook
top 5%
momentum score 1 — the highest rating. in human-speak, analysts think the next 12 months could be better than most stocks.
risk profile
average
stability score 3 — neither a bunker nor a casino. The business is operating through normal cyclicality with one very specific legal overhang.
chart momentum
average
technical score 3 — the rally has happened, but the chart is not screaming something the fundamentals have not already told you.
earnings predictability
45 / 100
low predictability means the quarterly numbers can move around a lot. With margins this thin, small misses look bigger than they are.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
120 buyers vs. 170 sellers in 4q2025. total institutional holdings: 85.3M shares.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$37
$76
$62
current price
$57
target midpoint · 7% from current · 3-5yr high: $120 (+95% · 19% ann'l return)
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