Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) Increases Dividend to $0.25 Per Share

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 21st,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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a boost from Agilent Technologies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

Agilent Technologies has increased its dividend payment by an average of 19.0% per year over the last three years. Agilent Technologies has a dividend payout ratio of 16.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Agilent Technologies to earn $5.72 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 16.4%.

Agilent Technologies Stock Performance

NYSE A traded up $2.98 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $131.55. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,541,891 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,705,815. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $138.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $137.76. Agilent Technologies has a 52 week low of $123.48 and a 52 week high of $155.35. The stock has a market cap of $37.80 billion, a PE ratio of 27.32, a PEG ratio of 5.53 and a beta of 1.07.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 21st. The medical research company reported $1.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 25.26% and a net margin of 21.75%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.43 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Agilent Technologies will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Agilent Technologies

In other news, SVP Dominique Grau sold 9,990 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.00, for a total transaction of $1,448,550.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 40,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,801,595. This represents a 19.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on A shares. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $140.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $151.00 target price on shares of Agilent Technologies in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Agilent Technologies in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $157.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Agilent Technologies presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $144.36.

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.