A vs. AMAT, ASUR, CYBR, GOOGL, SMTC, AME, ANET, DOCN, PSTG, and TMO
Should you be buying Agilent Technologies stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Agilent Technologies include Applied Materials (AMAT), Asure Software (ASUR), CyberArk Software (CYBR), Alphabet (GOOGL), Semtech (SMTC), AMETEK (AME), Arista Networks (ANET), DigitalOcean (DOCN), Pure Storage (PSTG), and Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO).
Agilent Technologies vs. Its Competitors
Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) and Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) are related large-cap companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation and media sentiment.
Agilent Technologies pays an annual dividend of $0.99 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Applied Materials pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Agilent Technologies pays out 24.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Applied Materials pays out 22.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Agilent Technologies has raised its dividend for 9 consecutive years and Applied Materials has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years. Applied Materials is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Agilent Technologies currently has a consensus target price of $139.77, indicating a potential upside of 15.75%. Applied Materials has a consensus target price of $202.65, indicating a potential upside of 3.44%. Given Agilent Technologies' higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Agilent Technologies is more favorable than Applied Materials.
80.6% of Applied Materials shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Applied Materials shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Agilent Technologies has a beta of 1.23, meaning that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Applied Materials has a beta of 1.69, meaning that its stock price is 69% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Applied Materials has a net margin of 24.06% compared to Agilent Technologies' net margin of 17.59%. Applied Materials' return on equity of 40.15% beat Agilent Technologies' return on equity.
Applied Materials has higher revenue and earnings than Agilent Technologies. Applied Materials is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Agilent Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Applied Materials had 43 more articles in the media than Agilent Technologies. MarketBeat recorded 68 mentions for Applied Materials and 25 mentions for Agilent Technologies. Applied Materials' average media sentiment score of 1.15 beat Agilent Technologies' score of 1.13 indicating that Applied Materials is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
Applied Materials beats Agilent Technologies on 16 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding A and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartMedia Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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This page (NYSE:A) was last updated on 7/9/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff