Agilent Technologies
A on NYSE. Agilent Technologies sells laboratory instruments, software, services and consumables to laboratories and industry. Market value $48.3bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to July 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to October 2025.
Should I look at this?
Good business, but not cheap right now
Why it could be worth it
What to watch out for
See cheaper Health care stocks on the list
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $2.65 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 30.5 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 15 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 100 of 100. Price score: 31 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$169.33 a share, 56% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $108.35 to $177.05.
Dividend: 0.6% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $6.3bn | $6.8bn | $6.8bn | $6.5bn | $6.9bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 21.3% | 23.6% | 19.8% | 22.9% | 21.3% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 0.51 | 0.52 | 0.47 | 0.57 | 0.50 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.30bn | 0.29bn | 0.29bn | 0.28bn | 0.28bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
- Financial strength (Piotroski)6 of 9
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt0.50× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 5.4% a year
- Buying back its own sharesYes, 5% fewer since 2021
The quarter to July 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $1.9 billion last quarter, up 8% on a year ago.
- Profit: $362 million, up 8% on a year ago.
- It keeps 22 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 21 cents a year earlier.
- Spare cash over the past 12 months: $1.3 billion, up from $1.1 billion.
- 1% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
- Debt is $2.2 billion more than cash, up from $1.9 billion a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| October 2024 | $1.7bn |
| January 2025 | $1.7bn |
| April 2025 | $1.7bn |
| July 2025 | $1.7bn |
| October 2025 | $1.9bn |
| January 2026 | $1.8bn |
| April 2026 | $1.8bn |
| July 2026 | $1.9bn |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| October 2024 | $351m |
| January 2025 | $318m |
| April 2025 | $215m |
| July 2025 | $336m |
| October 2025 | $434m |
| January 2026 | $305m |
| April 2026 | $339m |
| July 2026 | $362m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- 25 November 2026
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 22 December 2025
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 1 December 2026
Who owns it
14 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 10 last quarter. 1,131 funds in all.
- Scharf InvestmentsBrian Krawez
- Value
- $100m
- Share of fund
- 3.3%
- Fenimore Asset Management (FAM Funds)John Fox
- Value
- $75m
- Share of fund
- 1.5%
- Greenhaven AssociatesEdgar Wachenheim III
- Value
- $1m
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Troy Asset ManagementSebastian Lyon (founder) | $356m | 9.9% | Added |
| Glenview Capital ManagementLarry Robbins | $262m | 5.2% | New |
| Findlay Park PartnersFindlay Park team | $174m | 2.4% | Cut |
| Scharf InvestmentsBrian Krawez | $100m | 3.3% | |
| Fenimore Asset Management (FAM Funds)John Fox | $75m | 1.5% | |
| Select Equity GroupGeorge Loening | $68m | 0.4% | Added |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $34m | <0.1% | Added |
| Cantillon Capital ManagementWilliam von Mueffling | $17m | 2.5% | Cut |
| Boston PartnersBoston Partners team | $16m | <0.1% | New |
| First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners | $8m | <0.1% | Cut |
| GMOJeremy Grantham | $2m | <0.1% | New |
| Nuance InvestmentsScott Moore | $2m | 0.3% | Cut |
| Greenhaven AssociatesEdgar Wachenheim III | $1m | <0.1% | |
| GAMCO InvestorsMario Gabelli | $482,970 | <0.1% | New |
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$3.4bn
- Vanguard Capital Management$2.5bn
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$1.9bn
- State Street$1.7bn
- Massachusetts Financial Services$1.4bnCut
- T. Rowe Price Investment Management$1.0bnCut
- Geode Capital Management$1.0bn
- Wellington Management Group LLP$990mAdded
- Deutsche Bank AG$931mAdded
- Banque Cantonale Vaudoise$769mCut
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
3 investors own more than 5%.
- BlackRock, Inc.Passive investor8.3%Since 31 March 2025
- Vanguard Capital ManagementPassive investor7.5%Since 31 March 2026
- Vanguard Portfolio ManagementPassive investor5.1%Since 31 March 2026
- Massachusetts Financial Services CompanyPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 31 December 2024
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
BlackRock, Inc. Passive investor | 8.3% | 31 March 2025 | |
Vanguard Capital Management Passive investor | 7.5% | 31 March 2026 | |
Vanguard Portfolio Management Passive investor | 5.1% | 31 March 2026 | |
Massachusetts Financial Services Company Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 31 December 2024 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 3 sold $3m, $2m of it under preset trading plans.
- Dolsten MikaelDirectorSold
- Date
- 4 September 2026
- Shares
- 634
- Price
- $151.38
- Value
- $95,972
- Dolsten MikaelDirectorSold
- Date
- 29 May 2026
- Shares
- 1,600
- Price
- $135.42
- Value
- $216,672
- Dolsten MikaelDirectorSold
- Date
- 1 December 2025
- Shares
- 2,600
- Price
- $149.81
- Value
- $389,506
- Gonsalves RodneyV.P., Corporate ControllerSold
- Date
- 26 November 2025
- Shares
- 3,000
- Price
- $154.99
- Value
- $464,970
- MCDONNELL PADRAIGPresident and CEO, DirectorSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 18 November 2025
- Shares
- 911
- Price
- $143.24
- Value
- $130,492
- MCDONNELL PADRAIGPresident and CEO, DirectorSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 12 November 2025
- Shares
- 12,490
- Price
- $150.00
- Value
- $2m
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 September 2026 | Dolsten Mikael Director | Sold | 634 | $151.38 | $95,972 |
| 29 May 2026 | Dolsten Mikael Director | Sold | 1,600 | $135.42 | $216,672 |
| 1 December 2025 | Dolsten Mikael Director | Sold | 2,600 | $149.81 | $389,506 |
| 26 November 2025 | Gonsalves Rodney V.P., Corporate Controller | Sold | 3,000 | $154.99 | $464,970 |
| 18 November 2025 | MCDONNELL PADRAIG President and CEO, Director | Sold under a preset trading plan | 911 | $143.24 | $130,492 |
| 12 November 2025 | MCDONNELL PADRAIG President and CEO, Director | Sold under a preset trading plan | 12,490 | $150.00 | $2m |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 22 Dec 2025, plus the 10-Q filed 1 Sep 2026 and 9 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
- It isn't cheap on profits: 30.5× operating profit.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.