Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) Declares $0.24 Quarterly Dividend

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 22nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.236 per share by the medical research company on Wednesday, July 24th. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 2nd.

Agilent Technologies has raised its dividend by an average of 19.0% per year over the last three years. Agilent Technologies has a payout ratio of 16.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Agilent Technologies to earn $5.81 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.94 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.2%.

Agilent Technologies Price Performance

A stock opened at $129.63 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market capitalization of $37.82 billion, a PE ratio of 30.65, a P/E/G ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 1.07. Agilent Technologies has a 12-month low of $96.80 and a 12-month high of $155.35. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $139.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $138.47.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 29th. The medical research company reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.03. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 26.25% and a net margin of 18.84%. The firm had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.27 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Agilent Technologies will post 5.25 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on A shares. Wolfe Research downgraded Agilent Technologies from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Agilent Technologies from $165.00 to $155.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Agilent Technologies from $145.00 to $126.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Agilent Technologies from $67.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on Agilent Technologies from $145.00 to $135.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $136.88.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Dominique Grau sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.28, for a total transaction of $1,999,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,595,494.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Dominique Grau sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.28, for a total transaction of $1,999,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,595,494.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Padraig Mcdonnell sold 1,958 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total value of $254,540.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 25,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,274,050. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

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.