Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Robert McMahon : Yes, I think what you would see is a continuation of what we’ve been able to do this year. And what we’ve been able to do is cover the increase in costs associated with the inflation through the pricing activities, but then really leveraging our operating expenses. And you saw that in full display here in where we did have operating — gross margin expansion, but you also saw a majority of the margin expansion in the operating expense. And I think that that’s 1 of the benefits that we have through the investments that we’ve been making in digital over time, as Mike mentioned, as well as the continued effort around the One Agilent focus. So I would expect us to continue to see that I do think that the scale that we have across our businesses will continue to provide benefits next year, certainly, as we drive more business into our service organization.

I do think that we will continue to be able to leverage that footprint. And then if you look at the higher growth areas that we’ve been investing in, in the instrumentation side of the business, those are our more profitable businesses. And we are also looking to continue to attach — increase our attach rates both on the services but then also consumables, which are 1 of our highest profit. And I would say in Diagnostics, the DGG business, we are facing kind of some of the start-up costs with our Train B next year. But if you peel the onion, I would say, fundamentally, our business is performing very well there as well in ’23. And I would expect margin improvement outside of kind of some onetime start-up costs that we would have in bringing that train up and running in the second half of the year.

Matt Sykes : Got it. Then maybe a question on the Chemicals & Advanced Materials. You guys made a comment in the slide deck about increased demand in the energy business during Q4. Could you talk about the drivers behind that? And what your expectations are, specifically for the energy market as we move through ’23?

Mike McMullen: Yes. So we really wanted to make sure that it was clear that across all three segments of the CAM segment, we saw growth. And what you’re seeing going on here is a lot of investments in the HPI industry given the strength of their businesses. So — and I’ll have Jacob jump on this as well, I think their businesses with the ability to invest and they have a lot of deferred investments over the years, but also a lot of new money going into renewable and green energy initiatives as well.

Jacob Thaysen: Yes, I think you’re right, Mike. I think we’re seeing, as you mentioned, there has been some pause in the capital equipment investment over the years, and we’re definitely seeing that coming back. So — and both in the HPI, but also in the renewable energy, we continue to see a lot of strength, and we believe that will continue forward.

Mike McMullen: Yes, we’re expecting that trend to continue into ’23.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll go next now to Puneet Souda of SVB Securities.

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