Hartford Funds Management Co LLC Purchases Shares of 3,175 Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A)

Hartford Funds Management Co LLC purchased a new stake in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 3,175 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $441,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in A. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in Agilent Technologies during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. MV Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 120.7% in the 4th quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 192 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Baystate Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 107.3% in the 4th quarter. Baystate Wealth Management LLC now owns 257 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Column Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 1,111.1% in the 3rd quarter. Column Capital Advisors LLC now owns 327 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton raised its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 51.1% in the 4th quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 284 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter.

Insider Buying and Selling at Agilent Technologies

In other Agilent Technologies news, VP Rodney Gonsalves sold 4,828 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.00, for a total transaction of $719,372.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 21,329 shares in the company, valued at $3,178,021. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, VP Rodney Gonsalves sold 4,828 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 21,329 shares in the company, valued at $3,178,021. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Philip Binns sold 2,827 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.54, for a total transaction of $417,095.58. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,474,957.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 61,610 shares of company stock worth $9,220,333 over the last ninety days.

Agilent Technologies Price Performance

A stock traded down $2.55 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $137.04. 1,087,156 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,547,172. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $141.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $131.21. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a one year low of $96.80 and a one year high of $151.58. The company has a market cap of $40.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.63, a P/E/G ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The medical research company reported $1.29 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.37 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Agilent Technologies Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.236 per share. This represents a $0.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 1st. Agilent Technologies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.38%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on A. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Agilent Technologies from $132.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Agilent Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $145.00 to $163.00 in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Barclays upped their price target on Agilent Technologies from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group upped their price target on Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price target on Agilent Technologies from $67.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Agilent Technologies has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $141.29.

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.