Flynn Zito Capital Management LLC Acquires Shares of 1,784 Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A)

Flynn Zito Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,784 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $248,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,531,170 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,246,209,000 after acquiring an additional 261,435 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Agilent Technologies by 0.4% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 11,076,270 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,238,549,000 after purchasing an additional 39,030 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Agilent Technologies by 17.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,255,526 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,146,773,000 after purchasing an additional 1,519,134 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Agilent Technologies by 2.0% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,203,779 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $856,310,000 after purchasing an additional 122,329 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its position in Agilent Technologies by 79.4% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,145,767 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $620,414,000 after purchasing an additional 1,835,413 shares during the period.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $132.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $67.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $141.29.

Insider Buying and Selling 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 transaction of $7,844,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 253,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,086,350. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other 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 transaction of $7,844,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 253,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,086,350. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Rodney Gonsalves sold 4,828 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.00, for a total value of $719,372.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 21,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,178,021. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 61,610 shares of company stock valued at $9,220,333 in the last quarter.

Agilent Technologies Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of A stock traded down $2.11 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $132.44. 1,936,563 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,582,981. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $96.80 and a fifty-two week high of $151.58. The firm has a market cap of $38.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.50, a P/E/G ratio of 4.14 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $141.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $129.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a current ratio of 2.68.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The medical research company reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.37 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.51 EPS for the current year.

Agilent Technologies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.236 per share. This represents a $0.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 1st. Agilent Technologies’s payout ratio is presently 22.38%.

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.