Agilent Launches New Design

Agilent Technologies Inc. (A - Analyst Report) announced the upgrade of its radio frequency (RF) power amplifier design to be incorporated in its upcoming version of Advanced Design System (ADS).

Agilent’s Advanced Design System (ADS) is electronic design automation software. The software is used for testing RF, microwave and high-speed digital applications in electronic products like mobile phones, wireless networks, satellite communications, radar systems, microwave, high-speed digital applications and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems, as well as aerospace/defense electronics.

Power amplifiers are typically used to transform a weak signal into a stronger signal, thus enabling the working of a transmitting antenna.

The complexity of chip designing has increased considerably over time, due to the demand for increased functionality, smaller device sizes and lower power consumption. Therefore, chip designers have been using software tools for automating their designing and analysis right from the modeling stage to the final system verification stage.

As per research conducted by ASD Media Group, the global market for MRI systems will be worth $10.4 billion by 2022. Another research firm, Strategy Analytics expects wireless subscriptions to be up by $400.0 million from 2011 to 2016.

Infrastructure spending will also accelerate due to rising data volumes and adoption of new technologies such as LTE. Agilent has a huge opportunity to tap the growth in these markets.

Agilent’s testing systems have proved effective in the past, enabling it to build a strong position for itself. The electronic measurement segment has been improving over the last few quarters as Agilent has been launching quite a few new products in the market.

Agilent’s revenue was up 6.0% sequentially and 3.3% year over year, better than management’s expectations of a 4-5% sequential increase ($1.70 billion to $1.72 billion). Currency was a slight negative in the year-over-year comparison.

Currently, Agilent Technologies Inc. has a Zacks Rank of #3, implying a short-term Hold recommendation.