Agilent Technologies, Inc. (A) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.25 on January 22nd

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 20th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.248 per share by the medical research company on Wednesday, January 22nd. This represents a $0.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Agilent Technologies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

Agilent Technologies has raised its dividend by an average of 19.0% annually over the last three years. Agilent Technologies has a payout ratio of 17.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Agilent Technologies to earn $6.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.99 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.1%.

Agilent Technologies Price Performance

Agilent Technologies stock opened at $135.54 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.67, a PEG ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 1.07. Agilent Technologies has a one year low of $124.16 and a one year high of $155.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 2.09 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $135.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $136.57.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 25th. The medical research company reported $1.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.67 billion. Agilent Technologies had a net margin of 19.80% and a return on equity of 25.43%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.38 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Agilent Technologies will post 5.56 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on A shares. Bank of America dropped their price target on Agilent Technologies from $153.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price target on shares of Agilent Technologies from $140.00 to $135.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $157.00 to $155.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Agilent Technologies to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $143.62.

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.