Legal & General Group Plc Reduces Stake in Agilent Technologies, Inc. $A

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its stake in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) by 8.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,169,765 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 202,905 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.76% of Agilent Technologies worth $256,054,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of A. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 98,400 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $11,631,000 after purchasing an additional 5,767 shares in the last quarter. TrueMark Investments LLC bought a new stake in Agilent Technologies during the second quarter valued at $1,999,000. Fenimore Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in Agilent Technologies by 2.7% during the second quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc now owns 180,880 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $21,346,000 after buying an additional 4,823 shares during the period. Nuance Investments LLC grew its position in Agilent Technologies by 13.5% during the second quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 80,698 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $9,523,000 after buying an additional 9,628 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Carmel Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Agilent Technologies by 32.3% in the 2nd quarter. Carmel Capital Partners LLC now owns 10,928 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,290,000 after acquiring an additional 2,667 shares during the last quarter. 87.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Padraig Mcdonnell sold 12,490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total value of $1,873,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 33,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,017,200. This trade represents a 27.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Agilent Technologies from $128.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Rothschild & Co Redburn started coverage on shares of Agilent Technologies in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $165.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Agilent Technologies from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Agilent Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Agilent Technologies in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $149.62.

Agilent Technologies Price Performance

A stock opened at $151.49 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $42.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.56, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 1.29. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $139.65 and its 200 day moving average is $125.24. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $96.43 and a 52 week high of $153.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.71 and a current ratio of 2.25.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 27th. The medical research company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.37. The firm had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.67 billion. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 25.51% and a net margin of 17.97%.The business’s revenue was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.32 earnings per share. Agilent Technologies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.560-5.590 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 1.570-1.600 EPS. Research analysts predict that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Agilent Technologies Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 28th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 6th will be given a dividend of $0.255 per share. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 6th. This is an increase from Agilent Technologies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Agilent Technologies’s payout ratio is presently 23.94%.

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.