Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) Releases FY24 Earnings Guidance

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Monday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $5.44-5.55 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.64. The company issued revenue guidance of $6.71-6.81 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $6.99 billion. Agilent Technologies also updated its FY 2024 guidance to $5.44-$5.55 EPS.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. TheStreet downgraded Agilent Technologies from a b rating to a c+ rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 15th. UBS Group cut Agilent Technologies from a buy rating to a neutral rating and reduced their target price for the company from $163.00 to $125.00 in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on Agilent Technologies from $124.00 to $120.00 and set an in-line rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 16th. Barclays reduced their target price on Agilent Technologies from $110.00 to $105.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 29th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on Agilent Technologies in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a buy rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Agilent Technologies currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $143.94.

Agilent Technologies Price Performance

A stock opened at $113.98 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $109.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $117.66. The company has a quick ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 2.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock 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 52-week low of $96.80 and a 52-week high of $160.26.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 20th. The medical research company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.04. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 29.86% and a net margin of 16.20%. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.67 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.53 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Agilent Technologies will post 5.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Agilent Technologies Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Agilent Technologies

In other news, VP Rodney Gonsalves sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.78, for a total transaction of $415,730.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 24,219 shares in the company, valued at $2,876,732.82. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,531,170 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,246,209,000 after purchasing an additional 261,435 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 2.0% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,203,779 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $856,310,000 after purchasing an additional 122,329 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 1,835,413 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 16.2% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,769,368 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $383,114,000 after purchasing an additional 386,125 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Agilent Technologies in the fourth quarter valued at $393,291,000. 85.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Agilent Technologies Company Profile

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.