Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.04 EPS

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday. The medical research company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.04, MarketWatch Earnings reports. The firm had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.67 billion. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 29.86% and a net margin of 16.20%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.53 earnings per share.

Agilent Technologies Stock Performance

A stock traded up $0.83 during trading on Monday, reaching $113.98. The company had a trading volume of 2,908,299 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,824,946. The company has a market cap of $33.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.04. Agilent Technologies has a twelve month low of $96.80 and a twelve month high of $160.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a current ratio of 2.29. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $109.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $117.80.

Agilent Technologies Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.236 per share. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. This is a positive change from Agilent Technologies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 29th. Agilent Technologies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Rodney Gonsalves sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.78, for a total transaction of $415,730.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 24,219 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,876,732.82. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Agilent Technologies

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in A. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Agilent Technologies in the 4th quarter valued at about $393,291,000. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 79.4% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,145,767 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $620,414,000 after buying an additional 1,835,413 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Agilent Technologies by 67.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,336,607 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $309,203,000 after buying an additional 942,651 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 196.4% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,242,600 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $164,433,000 after buying an additional 823,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Agilent Technologies by 16.2% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,769,368 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $383,114,000 after acquiring an additional 386,125 shares during the period. 85.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on A shares. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Agilent Technologies from $124.00 to $120.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 16th. TheStreet downgraded Agilent Technologies from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 15th. UBS Group downgraded Agilent Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $163.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Friday. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Agilent Technologies from $144.00 to $140.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 16th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on Agilent Technologies from $110.00 to $105.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $143.94.

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies, Inc provides application focused solutions to the life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets worldwide. The Life Sciences and Applied Markets segment offers liquid chromatography systems and components; liquid chromatography mass spectrometry systems; gas chromatography systems and components; gas chromatography mass spectrometry systems; inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry instruments; atomic absorption instruments; microwave plasma-atomic emission spectrometry instruments; inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry instruments; raman spectroscopy; cell analysis plate based assays; flow cytometer; real-time cell analyzer; cell imaging systems; microplate reader; laboratory software; information management and analytics; laboratory automation and robotic systems; dissolution testing; vacuum pumps, and measurement technologies.