Agilent Technologies (A)
Healthcare · NYSE · US
Fundamentals
Valuation and ratings
Agilent Technologies trades at $136.10, which is 41% below the $191.73 our discounted cash flow model puts on the business. On that measure alone it screens as undervalued, though a DCF is an argument rather than a measurement, and the market is frequently right about why something is cheap.
Our moat model scores it 75 out of 100, which is a wide moat. A moat is a structural reason competitors cannot take the profits away, and it matters more to a long holding period than any single quarter's numbers do.
It changes hands at 27.0 times earnings. Be careful reading that in isolation: for a cyclical business a low P/E arrives at the top of the cycle, when profits are peaking and about to fall, which is exactly when the shares look cheapest and are not.
About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies, Inc. provides application focused solutions to the life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets, Agilent CrossLab, and Applied Markets. The Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets segment offers liquid chromatography systems and components; and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry systems. This segment is also involved in the genomics, contract development and manufacturing organization, pathology, companion diagnostics, and biomolecular analysis businesses. The Agilent CrossLab segment provides various services, including repairs, parts, maintenance, installations, training, compliance support, software as a service, asset management, consulting, and other custom services. This segment also offers consumables, including gas chromatography and liquid chromatography columns, sample preparation products, custom chemistries, and various laboratory supplies; software and informatics solutions comprising software for instrument control, data acquisition, data analysis, secure storage of results, and laboratory information and workflow management; and OpenLab laboratory software, an open software platform that enables customers to capture, analyze, and share scientific data throughout the lab and across the enterprise. In addition, it provides automated sample preparation solutions, such as liquid handling, plate management, consumables, and scheduling software. The Applied Markets segment offers products in the areas of gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, vacuum technology, and remarketed instruments. It markets its products through direct sales, distributors, resellers, manufacturer's representatives, and electronic commerce. Agilent Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
A passes 4 of our 30 screens today
Each screen prints the exact criteria it used, and the circumstances in which it is wrong.
Smart money ownership
17 of the funds we track reported a position in their latest SEC 13F filing. Largest first:
- William Von Mueffling, CANTILLON CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC$625.94M · 2.1% of book
- Cliff Asness, AQR CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC$339.41M · 0.2% of book
- Impax Asset Management, Impax Asset Management Group plc$210.20M · 1.5% of book
- Ken Griffin, CITADEL ADVISORS LLC$205.36M · 0.0% of book
- D. E. Shaw, D. E. Shaw & Co., Inc.$193.30M · 0.1% of book
A word of warning on reading these figures: a 13F reports the market value of a holding, so a fund that traded nothing at all still appears to have sold when the price fell. We found 102 companies where the standard reading gives the opposite answer. Only the share count is honest.
Common questions
Is Agilent Technologies (A) undervalued?
Against our discounted cash flow estimate of $191.73, A at $136.10 is 41% below fair value. That is one model's answer, not a recommendation, and most of a DCF's output sits in a terminal value nobody can forecast.
Which funds own A?
17 of the institutions we track reported a position in A in their most recent SEC 13F filing. A 13F is filed up to 45 days after quarter end, so it tells you what a fund held then, not what it holds now.
What is A's P/E ratio?
A trades at 27.0 times earnings. A low P/E is not automatically cheap: on a cyclical company it is usually a warning that earnings are at a peak.
The full research page for A, with financial statements, ownership detail, peer comparison and alerts, is free inside the app.
Data from company filings, exchange quotes and SEC EDGAR 13F disclosures. Quotes are delayed. Metrics we do not have are left out rather than estimated. Educational information, not financial advice.