Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) Shares Sold by Stevens Capital Management LP

Stevens Capital Management LP decreased its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) by 52.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,534 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 1,675 shares during the quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP’s holdings in Agilent Technologies were worth $206,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 116,679 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $15,675,000 after acquiring an additional 793 shares during the period. Fox Run Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in shares of Agilent Technologies in the fourth quarter valued at $470,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in Agilent Technologies during the 4th quarter valued at $13,569,000. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its stake in Agilent Technologies by 43.9% during the 4th quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 27,232 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,658,000 after buying an additional 8,313 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in Agilent Technologies in the 4th quarter worth $2,038,000.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on A. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Agilent Technologies from $161.00 to $159.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. StockNews.com raised Agilent Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Agilent Technologies from $157.00 to $155.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price target on shares of Agilent Technologies from $140.00 to $135.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned 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 target price of $146.15.

Agilent Technologies Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of Agilent Technologies stock opened at $121.96 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.04, a PEG ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.11. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $117.17 and a twelve month high of $155.35. The company has a current ratio of 2.20, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $136.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $137.16.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The medical research company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.67 billion. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 25.56% and a net margin of 19.27%. Equities research analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be given a $0.248 dividend. This represents a $0.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. Agilent Technologies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.76%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Padraig Mcdonnell sold 1,911 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $286,650.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 39,652 shares in the company, valued at $5,947,800. This trade represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Rodney Gonsalves sold 1,908 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.98, for a total value of $232,737.84. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 21,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,657,456.28. The trade was a 8.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

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.