Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC Buys New Shares in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A)

Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 1,551 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kepos Capital LP increased its stake in Agilent Technologies by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Kepos Capital LP now owns 2,775 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $310,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the period. Ancora Advisors LLC increased its stake in Agilent Technologies by 41.1% during the 1st quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 326 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its stake in Agilent Technologies by 51.1% during the 4th quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 284 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the period. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in Agilent Technologies by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,336 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $161,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco LLC increased its stake in Agilent Technologies by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco LLC now owns 15,471 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,730,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the period.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 20th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Agilent Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 19th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $132.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Agilent Technologies presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $141.29.

Agilent Technologies Price Performance

NYSE A opened at $140.73 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $141.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $129.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 1.11. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $96.80 and a 52-week high of $151.58.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The medical research company reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. Agilent Technologies had a net margin of 18.35% and a return on equity of 27.09%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.37 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Agilent Technologies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.236 per share. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 1st. Agilent Technologies’s payout ratio is presently 22.38%.

Insider Activity at Agilent Technologies

In other news, CEO Michael R. Mcmullen sold 52,297 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total value of $7,844,550.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 253,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,086,350. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Heidi Fields sold 1,658 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.34, for a total value of $239,315.72. Following the transaction, the director now owns 54,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,935,235.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael R. Mcmullen sold 52,297 shares of Agilent Technologies stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were 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 directly owns 253,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,086,350. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 61,610 shares of company stock valued at $9,220,333.

Agilent Technologies Profile

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.