Natixis Advisors LLC Trims Stake in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A)

Key Points

• Natixis Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 24.8%, owning 54,805 shares after selling 18,032 shares in the first quarter.
• The company's stock price fell to $113.32, below its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, with a market cap of $32.19 billion.
• Agilent Technologies reported a quarterly EPS of $1.31, exceeding analyst expectations, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.248 per share, yielding 0.9%.

Natixis Advisors LLC lessened its stake in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A - Free Report) by 24.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 54,805 shares of the medical research company's stock after selling 18,032 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC's holdings in Agilent Technologies were worth $6,411,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of A. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 13.5% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 36,674 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $4,279,000 after buying an additional 4,362 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 8.3% in the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 30,827 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $3,606,000 after buying an additional 2,371 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 29.5% in the 1st quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 13,358 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $1,563,000 after buying an additional 3,040 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 18.9% in the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 322,224 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $43,289,000 after buying an additional 51,144 shares during the period. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 30.4% in the 1st quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 9,474 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $1,108,000 after buying an additional 2,207 shares during the period.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Agilent Technologies from $155.00 to $135.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Agilent Technologies from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Agilent Technologies from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Agilent Technologies from $159.00 to $140.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Agilent Technologies from $135.00 to $116.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $139.77.

Agilent Technologies Stock Performance

NYSE:A traded up $0.71 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $114.69. 1,129,747 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,744,167. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $117.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $119.66. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a one year low of $96.43 and a one year high of $153.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 2.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market cap of $32.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.22.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The medical research company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.26 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 25.92% and a net margin of 17.59%. Agilent Technologies's revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.22 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Agilent Technologies Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 1st were given a $0.248 dividend. This represents a $0.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 1st. Agilent Technologies's payout ratio is currently 24.44%.

Insider Activity at Agilent Technologies

In other news, CEO Padraig Mcdonnell sold 1,508 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $177,099.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 37,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,397,893.12. This represents a 3.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Agilent Technologies Profile

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.