Agilent Technologies Inc (NYSE: A) stock fell over 3.6% in the pre-market session on 23rd November, 2020 (Source: Google finance) after the company posted lower than expected results for the fourth quarter of FY 20. Fourth quarter gross margin was 55%, which was down 150 basis points year-over-year, mainly due to a shift in revenue mix and an unfavorable impact of FX on margin.
On a geographic basis, all regions returned to growth. China continues to lead the growth with broad-based growth across most end-markets. For the quarter, China ended with 13% growth, the Americas delivered a 5% growth driven by large pharma, food, and chemical and energy. And in Europe, the company posted growth of 2% as the lab activity improved sequentially, benefiting from the on-demand service business in ACG, as well as from a rebound in pathology and genomics as elective procedures and screening started to resume.
Meanwhile, pharma, which is the company’s largest market, showed strength across all regions and delivered 12% growth in the fourth quarter. Both small and large molecule businesses grew, with large molecule delivering strong-double-digit growth. The company continues to invest and build capabilities in faster growth biopharma markets and offer leading solutions across both small and large molecule applications. The food market also posted double-digit growth during the quarter, which is a 16% increase in revenue. Diagnostics and clinical revenue rose 1% during Q4, due to recovery in the U.S. and Europe.
A in the fourth quarter of FY 20 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of 98 cents, while reported the adjusted revenue growth of 8 percent to $1.48 billion in the fourth quarter of FY 20, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $1.4 billion.
Additionally, for the year, the company repurchased just over 5.2 million shares for $469 million and ended the fiscal year in a strong financial position with $1.4 billion in cash and just under $2.4 billion in debt.
For the current quarter ending in February, Agilent expects its per-share earnings to be in the range of 85 cents to 88 cents. The company expects revenue to be in the range of $1.42 billion to $1.43 billion for the fiscal first quarter. The analysts surveyed by Zacks had projected revenue of $1.4 billion.
Agilent expects full-year earnings to be in the range of $3.57 to $3.67 per share, with revenue is expected to range from $5.6 billion to $5.7 billion.