Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) Short Interest Down 7.6% in December

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,910,000 shares, a decline of 7.6% from the December 15th total of 3,150,000 shares. Approximately 1.0% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,690,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.7 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Agilent Technologies

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 10.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,088,644 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $141,131,000 after buying an additional 99,080 shares in the last quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Agilent Technologies by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,761 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $228,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in Agilent Technologies by 13.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 28,992 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,727,000 after purchasing an additional 3,399 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL raised its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 5.0% in the second quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 20,560 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,665,000 after buying an additional 985 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP bought a new position in Agilent Technologies in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $401,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on A. Bank of America cut their target price on Agilent Technologies from $153.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Agilent Technologies from $165.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. StockNews.com raised Agilent Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Agilent Technologies from $157.00 to $155.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $143.62.

Agilent Technologies Trading Up 2.0 %

NYSE A traded up $2.85 on Friday, hitting $147.57. 3,210,301 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,210,953. The company has a market capitalization of $42.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $136.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $137.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 2.09 and a quick ratio of 1.58. Agilent Technologies has a 52-week low of $124.16 and a 52-week high of $155.35.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 25th. The medical research company reported $1.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.67 billion. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 25.43% and a net margin of 19.80%. The firm’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.38 EPS. Research analysts predict that Agilent Technologies will post 5.56 EPS for the current year.

Agilent Technologies Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a $0.248 dividend. This represents a $0.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. This is a positive change from Agilent Technologies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Agilent Technologies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.40%.

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.