This “A Stock Forecast: The outlook for this healthcare stock” article was written by Zhou He – Financial Analyst at I Know First.

Highlights

• Full-year revenue of $6.85 billion delivered 12% core revenue growth.
• A P/E ratio is higher than the Average and Median values across comparable companies.
• The acquisition will be highly complementary to Agilent’s SureSelect portfolio and NGS offerings.

Overview

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: A) was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Provides application-focused solutions to the global life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets. The Life Sciences and Applied Markets segment offers liquid chromatography systems and components. Diagnostics and Genomics provides management and interpretation support software for DNA mutation detection, genotyping, etc. The Agilent Cross Lab segment offers sample preparation products, custom chemicals, and laboratory instrumentation supplies. As well as start-up, operations, training, compliance support, software-as-a-service, asset management and consulting services. The company markets its products through direct sales, distributors, dealers, manufacturer’s representatives, and e-commerce.

Will the Stock Price Fluctuate Significantly?

Agilent Stock has led the NYSE with relatively large gains over the past month. This has attracted the attention of many investors and analysts. Let’s take a look at Agilent Technologies’ outlook and value based on the latest financial data. Investors looking for portfolio growth may wish to consider a company’s prospects before purchasing its stock. Acquiring a great company with a strong outlook on the cheap is always a good investment. Based on Zacks’s Estimates for profit growth of 46% over the next few years, it looks like the stock could see increased cash flow, which should lead to a higher stock valuation.

As a shareholder, the market appears to have priced in A’s positive outlook well and truly, with shares trading at a premium to industry price multiples. At the current price, the question most shareholders might be asking is, should I sell? If you believe that A should be trading below its current price, it may be profitable to sell high and buy again when its price falls to the industry PE Ratio. But we need to continue to pay attention to the development data of this stock. After all, the trading price of Agilent stock is fluctuating greatly. As an observer, if you have been paying attention to A shares for a while, now may be a better time to buy. The current price is 147.7. Compared with last month’s price, it is currently in a relatively stable and lower price state. So, the positive outlook is encouraging for A, which means it’s worth digging into other factors in order to take advantage of this price drop.

In Agilent’s report for the fourth quarter of 2022, revenue and earnings expectations exceeded expectations. Core revenue was $1.85 billion, up more than 17%. Operating margin of 29.1% continued to expand despite an inflationary environment and a stronger U.S. dollar, up 260 basis points from last year. Earnings per share were $1.53, up 26% from estimates of $1.39. These fourth quarter results mark yet another strong performance for Agilent in fiscal 2022. Full-year revenue of $6.85 billion delivered 12% core revenue growth.

Let’s see what trends the year ended October 31 reports show.

A stock is trading at a P/E ratio of 35.41. Let’s look at the next comparable companies: IQV, MTD, LH, WAT, DGX, CRL, etc. According to Figure 2, the A P/E ratio is higher than the Average and Median values across comparable companies.

Let us look at A’s performance across the Medical Diagnostics & Research Industry. According to GuruFocus, A is one of the most profitable companies in the industry. A’s ROE is the highest at 24.06 is better than 85.78% of companies in the industry. The Net Margin of 18.31% is higher than 84% of companies in the industry. ROA of 11.94% is better than 82.5% of companies. The Operating Margin of 23.63% is higher than 83.11% of companies in the industry. The Revenue Growth Rate is worse than 52.58% of companies in the industry. The EPS without NRI Growth Rate is worse than 53.45% of companies in the industry

Let’s look at the company credit test and financial positions.

The Altman Z-score, which determines the result of a credit test, stays near the bored of the Grey and Safe zones. At the same time, A looks interesting in terms of the Piotroski F-Score. Piotroski F-score is a number between 0 and 9 that is used to assess the soundness of a company’s financial position. A score of 6 may indicate that the company’s financial situation is very healthy situation.

The Yahoo Finance coverage for the company is performed by 14 analysts: 7 take the strong buy position. 4 takes the buy position, and 3 takes the hold position. The recommendation Rating is 1.9. The analysts’ community puts the average target price for the stock at $161.65 while it is traded at $147.67.

Agilent Technologies recently announced the acquisition of early-stage life sciences company Avida Biomed. The company provides genomics tools to help clinical researchers study cancer using next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods. Shares of Agilent have gained 2.1% over the past year, while the computer and technology sector has lost 33.4%. The acquisition will be highly complementary to Agilent’s SureSelect portfolio and NGS offerings. It will enhance the strength of A’s portfolio of clinical research solutions and presence in the clinical research and diagnostics markets.

Conclusion

Under the impression of the current general environment, everyone will unconsciously pay attention to the development of biomedicine, which is also an opportunity for this industry to shine. Enterprises like Agilent Technologies have made breakthroughs and developed under people’s eyes. Under the influence of many aspects, it can still break through the forecast, which is exciting for stockholders. Because of the large fluctuations in stocks, we still need to maintain attention and analysis.

It is worth paying attention that the stock-picking AI of I Know First has a high signal on the one-year market trend forecasts. The light green for the short-term forecasts is mildly bullish, while the darker green is a strong bullish signal for the one-year forecast.

Past Success with A Stock Forecast

I Know First has been bullish on the A stock forecast in the past. On September 13^th, 2022 the I Know First algorithm issued a forecast for A stock price and recommended A as one of the best stocks to buy. The AI-driven A stock prediction was successful on a 3-month time horizon resulting in more than 12.72%.

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Please note-for trading decisions use the most recent forecast.