Testing-equipment company Agilent Technologies Inc. said
earnings in the April quarter fell 40%, although the company said
it had "excellent order momentum" during the quarter.
Agilent has previously noted that currency issues have hurt
results. On Monday, the company said its life sciences and applied
markets group had strong order growth but "was unable to convert
all of this order strength to revenue" during the quarter.
Agilent shares fell 2.4% to $41.62 in after-hours trading.
The company expects earnings excluding items of 38 cents to 42
cents a share for the current quarter, on revenue of $995 million
to $1.015 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters project
earnings of 42 cents a share on revenue of $1 billion.
For the year ending in October, Agilent maintained its guidance
for earnings excluding items of $1.67 to $1.73 a share. It expects
revenue of $4.05 billion to $4.11 billion, compared with a February
forecast of $4.06 billion to $4.12 billion.
Agilent, which was spun off from Hewlett-Packard Co. in 1999,
split off its electronic-measurement business as a separate public
company, Keysight Technologies Inc., last year. Agilent retained
its life sciences, diagnostic equipment and applied chemical
operations.
Earlier this month, Agilent said it would buy Cartagenia, which
provides software used to analyze genomics data.
In March, Chief Executive Bill Sullivan stepped down. He was
replaced by Mike McMullen, who was the president of the chemical
analysis group.
For the quarter ended April 30, the company earned $83 million,
or 25 cents a share, compared with $139 million, or 41 cents a
share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 3% to $963 million.
Earnings excluding items from continuing operations were 38
cents a share.
Agilent had projected earnings excluding items of 37 cents to 41
cents a share on revenue of $985 million to $1.05 billion.
Orders totaled $1.04 billion, up 1%.
Write to Josh Beckerman at josh.beckerman@wsj.com
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