Agilent Sinks on Soft Quarter
Agilent
(A) - Get Report
slipped Tuesday after the maker of tech gear posted a softer-than-expected first-quarter profit.
Agilent shares had surged
late last month after the Palo Alto, Calif., company told Wall Street it would handily beat first-quarter estimates. But on Tuesday, the company posted numbers that came in just slightly south of those forecasts, sending shares down 6% in after-hours trading.
For its first quarter ended Jan. 31, Agilent earned $71 million, or 14 cents a share, reversing the year-ago loss of $369 million, or 78 cents a share. Revenue rose 16% from a year earlier to $1.64 billion. Excluding items, the latest-quarter profit was 21 cents a share, 2 cents shy of the Thomson First Call analyst consensus estimate.
"We are pleased with our performance in the first quarter of this year," said CEO Ned Barnholt. "Stronger economic activity in most of our markets drove these results, coupled with our ability to achieve lower structural costs sooner than anticipated.
"The markets we serve are clearly gaining some traction, and Agilent has both the cost structure and the innovative new products to take full advantage of the recovery," Barnholt said. But he added, "Without the normal first quarter drop, we are somewhat cautious about assuming the usual seasonal rise in second quarter activity."
The company maintained second-quarter guidance of earnings of 20 to 25 cents a share before charges, on revenue of $1.65 billion to $1.70 billion. For all of 2004, Agilent said it is "comfortable with the current range of analyst expectations for both revenues and operating EPS," said Barnholt.
On Tuesday, Agilent shares slipped $2.23 to $35.26.