Agilent Technologies (A) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) closed at $66.46 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.06% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 4.34%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 4.55%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 3.79%.

Coming into today, shares of the scientific instrument maker had lost 22.03% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector lost 27.47%, while the S&P 500 lost 28.78%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from An as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, An is projected to report earnings of $0.74 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 4.23%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.30 billion, up 4.73% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.40 per share and revenue of $5.52 billion. These totals would mark changes of +9.32% and +6.87%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for A. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.43% lower. An is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Investors should also note A's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 19.35. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 15.96, so we one might conclude that An is trading at a premium comparatively.

The Electronics - Testing Equipment industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 46, putting it in the top 19% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.