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Investing.com - Leerink Partners has raised its price target on Agilent (NYSE:A) to $165.00 from $140.00 while maintaining an Outperform rating following the company’s strong fourth-quarter performance. Agilent shares are currently trading at $153.60, just cents below their 52-week high of $153.84, after posting an impressive 42.11% gain over the past six months according to InvestingPro data.
The research firm noted that Agilent delivered a top-line beat in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025, with 7% organic growth compared to the 5% consensus estimate, and initiated fiscal year 2026 guidance at 4-6% organic growth, in line with 5% consensus expectations.
Leerink identified several potential sources of upside, including China business (assumed flat for next year), siRNA momentum contributing to NASD growth, and Biovectra growing due to GLP-1 strength, which was up 20% year-over-year in the quarter and represents approximately 60% of its roughly $40 million GLP-1 business.
The firm highlighted that management under new CFO Adam Elinoff is expecting strong growth ahead, though Agilent is maintaining a conservative outlook, and noted that the company’s service business provides a differentiated market position with its core and LC replacement cycle story. InvestingPro data shows Agilent maintains a healthy financial position with a current ratio of 2.25 and has consistently paid dividends for 14 consecutive years, though it trades at a relatively high P/E ratio of 35.62.
Leerink Partners cited higher peer multiples as the reason for raising its price target, expressing continued confidence in Agilent’s position across multiple end-markets, particularly those leveraged to Pharma, C&AM, and QA/QC instrumentation.
In other recent news, Agilent Technologies announced its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings, surpassing expectations with an earnings per share (EPS) of $1.59, slightly above the forecasted $1.58. The company reported revenue of $1.86 billion, exceeding predictions by $30 million. All three of Agilent’s segments outperformed expectations, with notable growth in the Life Sciences and Diagnostics Group, which grew by 10.7%. The Agilent CrossLab Group and Applied Markets Group also reported growth, increasing by 5.9% and 3.3%, respectively.
In response to these results, BofA Securities maintained a Neutral rating for Agilent but raised its price target from $150.00 to $165.00. Similarly, Evercore ISI increased its price target for Agilent from $140.00 to $155.00, while maintaining an "In Line" rating. Evercore ISI highlighted Agilent’s robust performance, particularly in liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, which saw significant growth. These developments reflect Agilent’s strong performance in the market and its ability to exceed financial forecasts.
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