Agilent Technologies Stock Hits New 52-Week High on Q1 Results

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) was founded in 1999 by the spin-off of Hewlett-Packard’s test, measurement, and related segments. The company went public in November 1999 by raising $2.1 billion, marking a record IPO in the history of Silicon Valley at that time. Today, Agilent is a leading provider of instruments, applications, and services to a range of industries around the world.

The Santa Clara, California-based company announced strong financial results for the first quarter. Agilent reported adjusted earnings of $288 million, or 93 cents per share for the three months ended January 31, up from 63 cents per share in the comparable period of 2020.

Revenue came in at $1.55 billion, translating to a surge of 14 percent from $1.36 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts on average were expecting Agilent to report earnings of 90 cents per share on sales of $1.44 billion.

Commenting on the quarter, CEO Mike McMullen said in a statement, “Agilent’s performance in the first quarter was outstanding and exceeded our recently increased revenue expectations. Our revenue growth was broad based with all three business groups growing double-digits. The Agilent team stayed focused, executed extremely well and increased market share in key areas. Our ‘build and buy’ strategy is delivering for us and the outlook for the remainder of the year is quite strong.”

Looking forward, Agilent expects to report an adjusted profit in the range of 78 cents per share to 80 cents per share and revenue between $1.37 billion and $1.39 billion for the second quarter. For the full year, it projected adjusted profit in the range of $3.80 to $3.90 per share and revenue between $5.825 billion to $5.900 billion.

Agilent shares hit a new 52-week high of $136.98 on Wednesday morning following the impressive quarterly results and 2021 outlook. Agilent stock has performed well in recent months despite the pandemic. The stock’s value has surged about 56 percent during the past 12 months, including today’s gain.