St. James Investment Company LLC Invests $208,000 in Agilent Technologies, Inc. $A

St. James Investment Company LLC bought a new position in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,760 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,408,626 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,908,141,000 after acquiring an additional 240,965 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its position in Agilent Technologies by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 5,341,870 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $624,888,000 after purchasing an additional 128,131 shares during the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP raised its position in Agilent Technologies by 19.8% in the 1st quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP now owns 4,983,556 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $582,976,000 after purchasing an additional 824,243 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in Agilent Technologies by 18.7% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 3,836,105 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $448,748,000 after purchasing an additional 604,124 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Agilent Technologies by 16.2% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,213,748 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $383,143,000 after purchasing an additional 447,207 shares during the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on A shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Agilent Technologies in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $128.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Rothschild Redb upgraded shares of Agilent Technologies to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $149.62.

Agilent Technologies Stock Performance

Shares of Agilent Technologies stock opened at $145.79 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $128.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $118.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.22, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 1.26. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $96.43 and a 52 week high of $153.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.71 and a current ratio of 2.25.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The medical research company reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.37. The company had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.67 billion. Agilent Technologies had a net margin of 17.97% and a return on equity of 25.51%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.32 EPS. Agilent Technologies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.560-5.590 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 1.570-1.600 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.58 EPS for the current year.

Agilent Technologies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be issued a $0.248 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $0.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Agilent Technologies’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

About Agilent Technologies

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.