Agilent Technologies Misses Q2 Expectations, Shares Drop

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fell over 3 percent in after-hours trading after the company reported downbeat results for the fiscal second quarter. The Santa Clara, California-based company reported net income of $83 million, or $0.25 per share, down from $139 million, or $0.41 per share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding ome-time items, its adjusted income from continuing operations came in at $129 million, or $0.38 per share. Its revenue dropped 3 percent year-over-year to $963 million from $988 million. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.39 per share on revenue of $990 million. The average estimate among 12 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.40 per share and revenue of $996.37 million. Revenue from Agilent's Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group slipped 5 percent year-over-year to $473 million, while revenue from the Agilent CrossLab Group fell 1 percent to $321 million. Revenue from the Diagnostics and Genomics Group gained 1 percent to $169 million in the quarter. Its orders rose 1 percent to $1.04 billion in the quarter. "Agilent delivered solid earnings within guidance, along with excellent order momentum in the second quarter," said Mike McMullen, Agilent president and CEO. "Our continued focus on customers and strong market acceptance of our new products and sales structure are driving order growth." For the third quarter, Agilent projects adjusted earnings of $0.38 to $0.42 per share on revenue of $995 million to $1,015 million. Analysts had expected earnings of $0.42 per share on revenue of $1 billion. For fiscal year 2015, the company projects adjusted earnings of $1.67 to $1.73 per share on revenue of $4.05 billion to $4.11 billion. Analysts had estimated earnings of $1.69 per share on revenue of $4.07 billion. Agilent shares fell 3.80 percent to $41.01 in the after-hours trading session.