Agilent Technologies, Inc. $A Shares Sold by Aberdeen Group plc

Key Points

• Aberdeen Group plc reduced its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 57.5%, selling 360,102 shares, leaving it with 266,036 shares valued at approximately $30.94 million.
• Agilent Technologies reported a quarterly EPS of $1.31, exceeding estimates and showing a 6% year-over-year revenue increase to $1.67 billion.
• Agilent recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.248, translating to an annualized yield of 0.8% and a payout ratio of 24.44%.

Aberdeen Group plc lowered its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A - Free Report) by 57.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 266,036 shares of the medical research company's stock after selling 360,102 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc owned approximately 0.09% of Agilent Technologies worth $30,937,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in A. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 1.1% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,162,783 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $136,012,000 after buying an additional 12,284 shares during the last quarter. Azimuth Capital Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Agilent Technologies by 0.5% during the first quarter. Azimuth Capital Investment Management LLC now owns 52,175 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $6,103,000 after purchasing an additional 259 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 159,455 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $18,653,000 after acquiring an additional 1,094 shares during the last quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc. now owns 61,307 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $7,172,000 after acquiring an additional 3,335 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its stake in Agilent Technologies by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 71,624 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $8,379,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares during the period.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $159.00 to $140.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Leerink Partners lifted their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies to $135.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies to $150.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $139.77.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Agilent Technologies news, CEO Padraig Mcdonnell sold 1,508 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $177,099.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 37,448 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,397,893.12. This represents a 3.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Agilent Technologies Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of A stock traded down $2.0330 on Thursday, hitting $117.0770. 736,254 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,948,706. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $117.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $117.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a current ratio of 2.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.26 billion, a PE ratio of 28.91, a PEG ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.22. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $96.43 and a twelve month high of $153.84.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The medical research company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.26 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.63 billion. Agilent Technologies had a net margin of 17.59% and a return on equity of 25.92%. The company's revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.22 EPS. Agilent Technologies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.540-5.610 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 1.350-1.370 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.58 EPS for the current year.

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies, Inc provides application focused solutions to the life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Life Sciences and Applied Markets, Diagnostics and Genomics, and Agilent CrossLab. 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; and vacuum pumps, and measurement technologies.