Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) VP Sells $232,737.84 in Stock

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) VP Rodney Gonsalves sold 1,908 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $121.98, for a total transaction of $232,737.84. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 21,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,657,456.28. This represents a 8.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Agilent Technologies Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE A traded up $0.61 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $123.10. 1,412,474 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,856,093. The firm has a market cap of $35.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $137.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $137.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $117.17 and a fifty-two week high of $155.35.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The medical research company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.67 billion. Agilent Technologies had a net margin of 19.27% and a return on equity of 25.56%. Analysts predict that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.57 EPS for the current year.

Agilent Technologies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be issued a $0.248 dividend. This represents a $0.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. Agilent Technologies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.76%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 3.5% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 15,589,874 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,314,784,000 after buying an additional 525,214 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,819,897 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,903,498,000 after buying an additional 158,175 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,306,805 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,250,276,000 after buying an additional 59,781 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,002,671 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $938,291,000 after buying an additional 53,992 shares during the period. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 5,213,739 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $700,414,000 after purchasing an additional 47,495 shares during the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on A shares. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price 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 raised shares of Agilent Technologies from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped 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 note on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $165.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $146.15.

About Agilent Technologies

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.