Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) Short Interest Up 10.3% in March

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,950,000 shares, an increase of 10.3% from the March 15th total of 3,580,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,590,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.5 days. Currently, 1.4% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Agilent Technologies Price Performance

Shares of A stock opened at $136.71 on Wednesday. Agilent Technologies has a twelve month low of $96.80 and a twelve month high of $151.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.55, a P/E/G ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $141.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $129.45. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 27.09% and a net margin of 18.35%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.37 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Agilent Technologies will post 5.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Agilent Technologies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 1st. Agilent Technologies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.38%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Michael R. Mcmullen sold 52,297 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total value of $7,844,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 253,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,086,350. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Agilent Technologies news, CEO Michael R. Mcmullen sold 52,297 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $7,844,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 253,909 shares in the company, valued at $38,086,350. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Philip Binns sold 2,827 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.54, for a total value of $417,095.58. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,474,957.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 61,610 shares of company stock worth $9,220,333 in the last quarter.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in A. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Agilent Technologies in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in shares of Agilent Technologies in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Money Concepts Capital Corp acquired a new position in shares of Agilent Technologies in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. MV Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 120.7% in the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 192 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the period. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Agilent Technologies in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on A shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Agilent Technologies from $132.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Agilent Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $145.00 to $163.00 in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Agilent Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $141.29.

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.