Courier Capital LLC Buys New Position in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A)

Courier Capital LLC bought a new stake in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,734 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $241,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Synovus Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 6,751 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $895,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 28,606 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,785,000 after purchasing an additional 1,957 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 52.1% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,334 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $309,000 after purchasing an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 1.1% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Zions Bancorporation N.A. boosted its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 10.8% during the 1st quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,880 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $381,000 after purchasing an additional 281 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on A shares. TheStreet upgraded shares of Agilent Technologies from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, December 8th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $67.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Agilent Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 19th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Agilent Technologies has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $138.29.

Agilent Technologies Price Performance

Shares of A opened at $147.41 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $43.20 billion, a PE ratio of 35.10, a PEG ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $137.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $126.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a current ratio of 2.68. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $96.80 and a twelve month high of $151.58.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The medical research company reported $1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. Agilent Technologies had a net margin of 18.35% and a return on equity of 27.09%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.37 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Agilent Technologies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.236 per share. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 1st. Agilent Technologies’s payout ratio is presently 22.38%.

Insider Activity at Agilent Technologies

In other news, CEO Michael R. Mcmullen sold 52,297 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total value of $7,844,550.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 253,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,086,350. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Michael R. Mcmullen sold 52,297 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total value of $7,844,550.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 253,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,086,350. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Heidi Fields sold 1,658 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.34, for a total transaction of $239,315.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 54,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,935,235.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 61,610 shares of company stock valued at $9,220,333. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.