How to buy Agilent Technologies stock | 105.49

Agilent Technologies, Inc is a diagnostics & research business based in the US. Agilent Technologies shares (A) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Agilent Technologies employs 16,400 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$5.3 billion.

How to buy shares in Agilent Technologies

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Agilent Technologies. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: A. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Agilent Technologies reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$105.49, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Agilent Technologies, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Agilent Technologies. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

How has coronavirus impacted Agilent Technologies's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, Agilent Technologies's share price has had significant positive movement.

Its last market close was USD$105.49, which is 19.36% up on its pre-crash value of USD$85.07 and 72.57% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$61.13.

If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of Agilent Technologies shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$771.21 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$1,283.81.

Agilent Technologies share price

Use our graph to track the performance of A stocks over time.

Agilent Technologies shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-11-26.

Latest market close	USD$105.49
52-week range	USD$60.7376 - USD$118.96
50-day moving average	USD$107.4803
200-day moving average	USD$96.9298
Wall St. target price	USD$118.4
PE ratio	49.7174
Dividend yield	USD$0.78 (0.68%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$2.3

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Is it a good time to buy Agilent Technologies stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Agilent Technologies, Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Agilent Technologies price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $105.49 from 2020-10-19

1 week (2020-11-25)	-7.75%
1 month (2020-11-02)	0.24%
3 months (2020-09-03)	5.87%
6 months (2020-06-03)	16.58%

1 year (2019-12-03)	31.70%
2 years (2018-12-03)	41.27%
3 years (2017-12-01)	53.57%
5 years (2015-12-03)	162.74%

Is Agilent Technologies under- or over-valued?

Valuing Agilent Technologies stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Agilent Technologies's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Agilent Technologies's P/E ratio

Agilent Technologies's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 50x. In other words, Agilent Technologies shares trade at around 50x recent earnings.

That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.

Agilent Technologies's PEG ratio

Agilent Technologies's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 3.0672. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Agilent Technologies's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Agilent Technologies's EBITDA

Agilent Technologies's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$1.2 billion.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Agilent Technologies's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Agilent Technologies financials

Revenue TTM	USD$5.3 billion
Operating margin TTM	15.85%
Gross profit TTM	USD$2.8 billion
Return on assets TTM	5.54%
Return on equity TTM	14.95%
Profit margin	13.47%
Book value	$15.925
Market capitalisation	USD$35 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Agilent Technologies shares

There are currently 3.1 million Agilent Technologies shares held short by investors – that's known as Agilent Technologies's "short interest". This figure is 5.8% up from 2.9 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Agilent Technologies shares can be evaluated.

Agilent Technologies's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Agilent Technologies's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Agilent Technologies shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Agilent Technologies shares traded daily (recently around 1.2 million). Agilent Technologies's SIR currently stands at 2.5. In other words for every 100,000 Agilent Technologies shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2500 shares are currently held short.

However Agilent Technologies's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Agilent Technologies shares, or, against the total number of tradable Agilent Technologies shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Agilent Technologies's short interest could be expressed as 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Agilent Technologies shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.0101% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Agilent Technologies shares, roughly 10 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Agilent Technologies.

Find out more about how you can short Agilent Technologies stock.

Agilent Technologies's environmental, social and governance track record

Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Agilent Technologies.

When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.

Agilent Technologies's total ESG risk score

Total ESG risk: 17.72

Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Agilent Technologies's overall score of 17.72 (as at 01/01/2019) is excellent – landing it in it in the 12nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector.

ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Agilent Technologies is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).

Agilent Technologies's environmental score

Environmental score: 0.63/100

Agilent Technologies's environmental score of 0.63 puts it squarely in the 2nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Agilent Technologies is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Agilent Technologies's social score

Social score: 9.4/100

Agilent Technologies's social score of 9.4 puts it squarely in the 2nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Agilent Technologies is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.

Agilent Technologies's governance score

Governance score: 5.95/100

Agilent Technologies's governance score puts it squarely in the 2nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that Agilent Technologies is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Agilent Technologies's controversy score

Controversy score: 2/5

ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Agilent Technologies scored a 2 out of 5 for controversy – the second-highest score possible, reflecting that Agilent Technologies has, for the most part, managed to keep its nose clean.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary

Agilent Technologies, Inc was last rated for ESG on: 2019-01-01.

Total ESG score	17.72
Total ESG percentile	11.7
Environmental score	0.63
Environmental score percentile	2
Social score	9.4
Social score percentile	2
Governance score	5.95
Governance score percentile	2
Level of controversy	2

Agilent Technologies share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 17.27% of net profits

Recently Agilent Technologies has paid out, on average, around 17.27% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 0.68% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Agilent Technologies shareholders could enjoy a 0.68% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Agilent Technologies's case, that would currently equate to about $0.78 per share.

While Agilent Technologies's payout ratio might seem low, this can signify that Agilent Technologies is investing more in its future growth.

Agilent Technologies's most recent dividend payout was on 28 October 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 4 January 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Agilent Technologies's shares ever split?

Agilent Technologies's shares were split on a 1398:1000 basis on 3 November 2014. So if you had owned 1000 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 1398 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Agilent Technologies shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 28.5% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Agilent Technologies shares which in turn could have impacted Agilent Technologies's share price.

Agilent Technologies share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Agilent Technologies's shares have ranged in value from as little as $60.7376 up to $118.96. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Agilent Technologies's is 1.0327. This would suggest that Agilent Technologies's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Agilent Technologies overview

Agilent Technologies, Inc. provides application focused solutions to the life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets worldwide. It operates in three segments: Life Sciences and Applied Markets, Diagnostics and Genomics, and Agilent CrossLab. The Life Sciences and Applied Markets segment offers liquid and gas chromatography systems and components; liquid and 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 readers; laboratory software and information management and analytics; laboratory automation and robotic systems; dissolution testing; vacuum pumps; and measurement technologies. The Diagnostics and Genomics segment provides reagents, instruments, software, and consumables; arrays for DNA mutation detection, genotyping, gene copy number determination, identification of gene rearrangements, DNA methylation profiling, and gene expression profiling, as well as sequencing target enrichment, genetic data management, and interpretation support software; and equipment focused on production of synthesized oligonucleotides for use as active pharmaceutical ingredients. The Agilent CrossLab segment offers GC and LC columns, sample preparation products, custom chemistries, and laboratory instrument supplies; and startup, operational, training, compliance support, and software as a service, as well as asset management and consultation services. The company markets its products through direct sales, distributors, resellers, manufacturer's representatives, and electronic commerce. It has collaboration agreement with SGS AXYS. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Agilent Technologies is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 0.355% of Agilent Technologies shares are held by insiders and 89.856% by institutions.

• How many people work for Agilent Technologies?

  Latest data suggests 16,400 work at Agilent Technologies.

• When does the fiscal year end for Agilent Technologies?

  Agilent Technologies's fiscal year ends in October.

• Where is Agilent Technologies based?

  Agilent Technologies's address is: 5301 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Santa Clara, CA, United States, 95051

• What is Agilent Technologies's ISIN number?

  Agilent Technologies's international securities identification number is: US00846U1016

• What is Agilent Technologies's CUSIP number?

  Agilent Technologies's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 00846U101