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What's in the Offing for Agilent (A) This Earnings Season?

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Agilent Technologies (A - Free Report) is set to report fiscal fourth-quarter 2020 results on Nov 23. In the last reported quarter, it delivered an earnings surprise of 18.18%.

The stock outperformed earnings estimates thrice and matched once in the last four quarters, with the average surprise being 11.02%.

Agilent Technologies, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Agilent Technologies, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Agilent Technologies, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Agilent Technologies, Inc. Quote

Trend in Estimate Revision

For the fiscal fourth quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has remained stable at 91 cents per share over the past 30 days. This indicates growth of 2.3% from the year-ago reported figure.

The consensus mark for revenues is pegged at $1.40 billion, implying growth of 2.1% from the year-ago reported figure.

Let’s see how things have shaped up for this announcement.

Factors to Note

During the fiscal fourth quarter, Agilent continued to take all the necessary steps to reduce expenses and expand presence in the expanding healthcare market.

Its expanding product portfolio must have been a key growth driver. The company increased investments in fast-growing markets such as biopharma, which is anticipated to have served as a tailwind for Agilent in the quarter.

During the quarter, the company launched Agilent NovoCyte Penteon, a sensitive flow cytometer with five lasers and up to 30 fluorescence channels, thereby expanding advanced flow cytometer offerings.

Markedly, strength in China continued in the quarter across all end markets and business groups.

However, the outlook for Europe and the United States remained challenging, particularly for new equipment parts across most end markets.

Nevertheless, the company’s Diagnostics and Genomics Group (DGG) is expected to have performed well in the to-be-reported quarter, driven by growth in pharma, as well as strength in genomics.

Agilent expanded its share in next-gen sequencing, which is expected to have driven the top line in the pathology business. Also, growth of the API business must have contributed to top-line growth in the quarter.

The company’s focus on aligning investments toward more attractive growth avenues and innovative product launches is expected to have aided its performance.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Agilent Cross Lab Group revenues is pegged at $483 million, indicating an increase of 1.5% year over year. The consensus mark for revenues from DGG is pegged at $267 million, indicating a decline of 0.7% year over year, while the same for Life Sciences & Applied Markets Group is $651 million, indicating 4.7% year-over-year growth.

What Our Model Says

Our proven model does not predict an earnings beat for Agilent this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. That is the not the case here as you will see below.

Earnings ESP: The company has an Earnings ESP of -0.27%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Currently, Agilent has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Stocks That Warrant a Look

Here are a few stocks worth considering, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to deliver an earnings beat in the upcoming releases.

Target Corporation (TGT - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +5.55% and holds a Zacks Rank of 2, at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Momo Inc. (MOMO - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +5.41% and carries a Zacks Rank of 3, currently.

DocuSign (DOCU - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +4.35% and currently holds a Zacks Rank of 3.

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