Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys New Position in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in shares of Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 17,700 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,461,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in A. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Agilent Technologies during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $393,291,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 939.8% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,296,512 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $256,796,000 after acquiring an additional 2,075,649 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 233.7% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,666,416 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $370,552,000 after acquiring an additional 1,867,377 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 79.4% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,145,767 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $620,414,000 after acquiring an additional 1,835,413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meritage Group LP bought a new position in shares of Agilent Technologies during the third quarter valued at approximately $184,437,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Agilent Technologies from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 20th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Agilent Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $163.00 in a report on Friday, April 5th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Agilent Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $141.29.

Agilent Technologies Trading Down 2.5 %

NYSE A opened at $136.71 on Wednesday. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $96.80 and a 12 month high of $151.58. The stock has a market cap of $40.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.55, a P/E/G ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $141.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $129.45. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The medical research company reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.07. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 27.09% and a net margin of 18.35%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.37 earnings per share. Agilent Technologies’s revenue was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Agilent Technologies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.236 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 1st. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Agilent Technologies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.38%.

Insider Activity at Agilent Technologies

In related news, CEO Michael R. Mcmullen sold 52,297 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $7,844,550.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 253,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,086,350. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Agilent Technologies news, Director Heidi Fields sold 1,658 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $144.34, for a total value of $239,315.72. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 54,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,935,235.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael R. Mcmullen sold 52,297 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total value of $7,844,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 253,909 shares in the company, valued at $38,086,350. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 61,610 shares of company stock valued at $9,220,333 over the last ninety days.

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.