Here’s Why Agilent (A) Traded Down in Q1

Madison Investments, an investment advisor, released its “Madison Sustainable Equity Strategy” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here.  In the first quarter, the S&P 500 had a total return of -4.3%, with a significant -5.6% drop in March. This decline was mainly due to the impact of tariffs, which hurt business and consumer confidence. Expectations for strong economic growth and deregulation have decreased as the new administration’s trade priorities have become clearer. The strategy returned -3.32% (Gross) in the quarter compared to -4.27% for the index. Both sector allocation and security selection were positive during the quarter. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2025.

In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Madison Sustainable Equity Strategy highlighted stocks such as Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A). Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) is a technology company that offers application-focused solutions to the life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets. The one-month return of Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) was 6.51%, and its shares lost 8.31% of value over the past 52 weeks. On June 11, 2025, Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) closed at $119.72 per share, with a market capitalization of $34.008 billion.

Madison Sustainable Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

“Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) reported its first fiscal quarter results in late February that were slightly better than consensus. However, year-over-year organic revenue growth remains muted at 1.2% and the wide range for second fiscal quarter guidance reflects the uncertainty around U.S. federal government spending. Pharma sales, Agilent’s largest end market representing 35% of sales, were flat in the quarter. The pharma business in China was down in the high single digits offsetting growth elsewhere. Revenue in its second largest market, Chemicals and Advanced Materials, was -2% again due to a decline in China. Sales in its smallest market, Academia & Government, with 8% of sales, were -7%. The softness here is due to an anticipated slowdown in U.S. government spending. Agilent did report high single-digit growth across its other markets with PFAS workflow solutions up 70% year-over year. Book-to-bill ratio above 1.0 for its instruments suggests a positive trend in market conditions.”

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 55 hedge fund portfolios held Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) at the end of the first quarter, which was 55 in the previous quarter. Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: A) reported revenue of $1.67 billion in Q2 2025, marking 6% increase over Q2 2024 on a reported basis. While we acknowledge the potential of Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the undervalued AI stock set for massive gains.

In another article, we covered Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) and shared the list of stocks Jim Cramer recently discussed. Impax Global Environmental Markets Fund attributed Agilent Technologies, Inc.’s (NYSE:A) weak performance in the first quarter to recession fears and rising US-China geopolitical tensions. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.