Brokerages Set Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) PT at $141.29

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $141.29.

A has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised Agilent Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $145.00 to $163.00 in a research report on Friday, April 5th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Agilent Technologies from $67.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Agilent Technologies from $132.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th.

Agilent Technologies Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of Agilent Technologies stock opened at $142.80 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.04, a current ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Agilent Technologies has a 12 month low of $96.80 and a 12 month high of $151.58. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $142.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $132.24. The stock has a market cap of $41.85 billion, a PE ratio of 34.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 1.13.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The medical research company reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.07. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 27.09% and a net margin of 18.35%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.37 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Agilent Technologies will post 5.5 EPS for the current year.

Agilent Technologies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.236 per share. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 1st. Agilent Technologies’s payout ratio is presently 22.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Agilent Technologies news, SVP Philip Binns sold 2,827 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.54, for a total transaction of $417,095.58. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,997 shares in the company, valued at $1,474,957.38. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Michael R. Mcmullen sold 52,297 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 253,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,086,350. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Philip Binns sold 2,827 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,474,957.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 61,610 shares of company stock worth $9,220,333 over the last three months.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of A. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Agilent Technologies in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in shares of Agilent Technologies in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. MV Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Agilent Technologies by 120.7% in the 4th quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 192 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Agilent Technologies in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 527.8% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 226 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the period.

Agilent Technologies Company 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.