Sage Mountain Advisors LLC Raises Position in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A)

Sage Mountain Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) by 47.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,995 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 645 shares during the quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC’s holdings in Agilent Technologies were worth $268,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in A. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 3.5% in the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 525,214 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,819,897 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,903,498,000 after purchasing an additional 158,175 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,948,679 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,028,241,000 after purchasing an additional 30,610 shares in the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 3,316,557 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $445,546,000 after purchasing an additional 17,627 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 8.7% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,235,263 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $434,625,000 after purchasing an additional 258,358 shares in the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $161.00 to $159.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Agilent Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. Barclays upgraded shares of Agilent Technologies from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Agilent Technologies to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Agilent Technologies from $153.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $146.15.

Agilent Technologies Trading Down 0.9 %

NYSE A opened at $119.92 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a current ratio of 2.20. The firm has a market cap of $34.19 billion, a PE ratio of 27.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 1.11. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a one year low of $119.08 and a one year high of $155.35. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $138.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $138.28.

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

Agilent Technologies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 0.83%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 1st. Agilent Technologies’s payout ratio is 22.76%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Padraig Mcdonnell sold 1,911 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total value of $286,650.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 39,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,947,800. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

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.