Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A – Get Rating)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday after TD Cowen lowered their price target on the stock from $168.00 to $145.00. The stock had previously closed at $128.64, but opened at $115.20. TD Cowen currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Agilent Technologies shares last traded at $114.28, with a volume of 1,133,513 shares.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. StockNews.com started coverage on Agilent Technologies in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $174.00 to $144.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $140.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Credit Suisse Group decreased their price target on shares of Agilent Technologies from $170.00 to $160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $170.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $151.35.

Institutional Trading of Agilent Technologies

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in A. Synovus Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Agilent Technologies by 2.3% in the first quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 6,751 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $895,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 28,606 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,785,000 after purchasing an additional 1,957 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 52.1% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,334 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $309,000 after purchasing an additional 799 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,531,170 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,246,209,000 after purchasing an additional 261,435 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 10.8% during the 1st quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,880 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $381,000 after purchasing an additional 281 shares during the last quarter.

Agilent Technologies Trading Down 5.9 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $35.78 billion, a PE ratio of 27.31, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $133.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $144.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 2.11.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 23rd. The medical research company reported $1.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.26 by $0.01. Agilent Technologies had a net margin of 19.09% and a return on equity of 30.35%. The business had revenue of $1.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.13 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Agilent Technologies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 26th. Investors of record on Monday, July 3rd will be given a $0.225 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 30th. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. Agilent Technologies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.32%.

Agilent Technologies Company Profile

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Agilent Technologies, Inc engages in the provision of application focused solutions for life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets. It operates through the following segments: Life Sciences and Applied Markets, Diagnostics and Genomics, and Agilent CrossLab. The Life Sciences and Applied Markets segment offers application-focused solutions that include instruments and software that identify, quantify, and analyze the physical and biological properties of substances and products, as well as the clinical and life sciences research areas to interrogate samples at the molecular and cellular level.