Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) Shares Acquired by Brighton Jones LLC

Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) by 3.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,468 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Agilent Technologies were worth $579,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of Agilent Technologies in the first quarter valued at about $938,000. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in Agilent Technologies by 953.3% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 32,694 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $4,757,000 after acquiring an additional 29,590 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG lifted its position in Agilent Technologies by 84.5% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 325,695 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $45,281,000 after acquiring an additional 149,159 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 27.1% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,609,420 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $223,758,000 after purchasing an additional 343,175 shares during the period. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 26.2% in the first quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 21,770 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,168,000 after purchasing an additional 4,523 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A has been the topic of several recent research reports. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $153.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Agilent Technologies from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $141.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Bank of America boosted their target price on Agilent Technologies from $140.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $151.00 price target on shares of Agilent Technologies in a report on Monday, August 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Agilent Technologies presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $141.60.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Padraig Mcdonnell sold 1,958 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.00, for a total transaction of $283,910.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 24,118 shares in the company, valued at $3,497,110. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Agilent Technologies Price Performance

Agilent Technologies stock opened at $140.09 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $137.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $139.21. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $96.80 and a 52 week high of $155.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.87 billion, a PE ratio of 33.12, a P/E/G ratio of 6.43 and a beta of 1.05.

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

Agilent Technologies Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st will be given a $0.236 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Agilent Technologies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.22%.

Agilent Technologies 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.