Goodman Advisory Group LLC Sells 381 Shares of Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A)

Goodman Advisory Group LLC trimmed its holdings in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,928 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 381 shares during the quarter. Goodman Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Agilent Technologies were worth $1,797,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Everence Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 95.7% during the 4th quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. now owns 10,185 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,416,000 after buying an additional 4,980 shares during the last quarter. Keel Point LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Agilent Technologies in the 4th quarter worth about $311,000. Oak Family Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Oak Family Advisors LLC now owns 4,826 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $671,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Invesco LLC grew its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Invesco LLC now owns 16,265 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,261,000 after buying an additional 794 shares during the period. Finally, Waldron Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,518 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $489,000 after buying an additional 408 shares during the period. 87.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on A. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $67.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Agilent Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $145.00 to $163.00 in a research note on Friday, April 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $141.29.

Agilent Technologies Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE:A traded down $3.42 on Wednesday, hitting $136.80. 1,345,667 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,309,666. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $96.80 and a 12 month high of $151.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $141.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $129.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.04.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The medical research company reported $1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.37 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Agilent Technologies Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Agilent Technologies

In other Agilent Technologies news, CEO Michael R. Mcmullen sold 52,297 shares of Agilent Technologies 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 253,909 shares in the company, valued at $38,086,350. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Heidi Fields sold 1,658 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.34, for a total value of $239,315.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 54,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,935,235.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael R. Mcmullen sold 52,297 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 253,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,086,350. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 61,610 shares of company stock worth $9,220,333 over the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.