State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Cuts Position in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lowered its position in Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) by 35.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 107,023 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 60,023 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Agilent Technologies were worth $13,873,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 18.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,884,345 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,348,471,000 after acquiring an additional 4,605,228 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Agilent Technologies in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $509,904,000. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in Agilent Technologies by 262.1% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,292,929 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $318,786,000 after purchasing an additional 1,659,768 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Agilent Technologies by 13.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,542,054 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,242,956,000 after buying an additional 1,042,926 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meritage Group LP boosted its holdings in shares of Agilent Technologies by 28.3% in the 4th quarter. Meritage Group LP now owns 2,116,862 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $294,307,000 after buying an additional 467,451 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.42% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Padraig Mcdonnell sold 1,958 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.00, for a total transaction of $283,910.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 24,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,497,110. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Agilent Technologies from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Agilent Technologies from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Bank of America upped their target price on Agilent Technologies from $140.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Citigroup lifted their price target on Agilent Technologies from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $151.00 price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies in a report on Monday, August 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $141.60.

Agilent Technologies Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE A opened at $137.31 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.46, a P/E/G ratio of 6.43 and a beta of 1.05. Agilent Technologies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $96.80 and a 52-week high of $155.35. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $136.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $139.18.

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 21st. The medical research company reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. Agilent Technologies had a return on equity of 25.26% and a net margin of 21.75%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.43 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Agilent Technologies, Inc. will post 5.24 EPS for the current year.

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies, Inc provides application focused solutions to the life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Life Sciences and Applied Markets, Diagnostics and Genomics, and Agilent CrossLab. The Life Sciences and Applied Markets segment offers liquid chromatography systems and components; liquid chromatography mass spectrometry systems; gas chromatography systems and components; 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 reader; laboratory software; information management and analytics; laboratory automation and robotic systems; dissolution testing; and vacuum pumps, and measurement technologies.