Agilent Technologies Beats Q4 Earnings
Agilent Technologies Beats Q4 Earnings
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Agilent’s fourth-quarter revenues of $1.04 billion were up 2.1% from the last quarter but down 0.8% year over year. Revenues were within management’s guidance range of $1.03 billion to $1.05 billion and in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Revenue growth was supported by continued strength in the pharma, diagnostics, clinical and food markets and across all geographies. Product lines of strength included its CrossLab services and consumables, diagnostics and genomics as well as liquid chromatography offerings.
Americas was a significant revenue contributor with 37% share with battery such as Fluke Ti-20 Battery, Fluke Ti20-RBP Battery, Fluke TiR Battery, Fluke TiR1 Battery, Fluke Ti10 Battery, Fluke Ti20 Battery, Fluke Ti25 Battery, Fluke 125 Battery, Fluke 125S Battery, Fluke BP120MH Battery, Fluke 43 Battery, Fluke 43B Battery, while Asia/Pacific and Europe accounted for 33% and 30%, respectively. Only the Americas grew sequentially.
Agilent now has three reporting segments — Life Sciences & Applied Markets Group (LSAG), Agilent Cross Lab Group (ACG) and Diagnostics and Genomics Group (DGG). Its Electronic Measurement Group (EMG) segment has been spun off into Keysight Technologies, an independent, publicly traded company. Agilent also exited the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance business which failed to meet its growth and profitability goals. The company divested or shut down underperforming units to streamline operations.
LSAG was the largest contributor in the last quarter and accounted for $515 million or 50% of total revenue, down 4% year over year. Strong performance in Pharma was offset by softness in the industrial and academia & government markets.
ACG contributed $342 million or 33% to revenues, up 3% year over year. Both services and consumables experienced growth across all geographies.
DGG garnered $178 million or 17% of revenues. The segment was up 4% year over year. All businesses under this group (Dako, Genomics and Nucleic Acid Solutions) did well.
The pro-forma gross margin for the quarter was 51.7%, down 176 basis points (bps) sequentially but up 577 bps from last year.
Adjusted operating expenses dropped 9% sequentially but were up 60% from the year-ago quarter. As a result, the operating margin of 21.5% increased 192 bps sequentially but declined 568 bps year over year.
Operating margins of LSAG, AGG and DGG segments were 20.0%, 25.1% and 19.2%, respectively.