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Agilent Technologies Q3 Profit Drops 31% But Non-GAAP Earnings Tops Guidance (A)

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Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) said late on Wednesday that fiscal third quarter income fell 31%. The diversified testing equipment maker blamed weakness in the electronic measurement division. Other business segments, however, showed growth in the latest period.

Shares gained in aftermarket hours as earnings on non-GAAP basis topped the Company’s own forecast even as it lifted the lower end of the full-year profit forecast.

Agilent raised the lower end of the earnings guidance by 13 cents and now expects earnings between $2.83 and $2.85 a share on revenue range of $6.76 billion to $6.78 billion. Earlier the Company provided revenue guidance of $6.75 billion to $6.85 billion.

For the current quarter, the Company expects earnings to be in the range of 75 cents to 77 cents a share on revenue of $1.7 billion to $1.72 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of 76 cents a share on revenue of $1.73 billion.

For the quarter ended July 31, the Santa Clara CA based Company posted net income of $168 million or 49 cents a share compared to a profit of $243 million or 69 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. On adjusted basis, the Company earned 68 cents compared to 79 cents a share. Revenue fell 4% to $1.65 billion. Earlier in May, Agilent projected earnings to come in the range of 60 to 64 cents a share on revenue of $1.63 billion to $1.66 billion.

Operating margin contracted to 14.3% from 15.7% in the same quarter of last year. Operating expenses fell 2.5%.

Commenting over the results, Agilent’s Chief Executive Bill Sullivan said in a conference call, “Although we are operating in a very challenging economic environment, we are pleased with our operational performance, as we continue to make progress improving our manufacturing efficiency and streamlining our expense structure. The result has been better than forecast operating margins.”








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Post Written By: Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.

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Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing.

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