5 Best Genomic Stocks to Buy Now

4. Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A)

No of HFs: 39

Total Value of HF Holdings: $3.2 Billion

Agilent Technologies Inc. is a producer and developer of core bio-analytical and electronic measurement solutions to the communications, electronics and life sciences, and chemical analysis industries. During the third quarter of 2020, the company reported revenue of $1.26 million.

In an article, we mentioned Pershing Square Capital Management’s comments on A,

Agilent’s fiscal third quarter results were demonstrative of the company’s high-quality, resilient business model and significant margin expansion opportunity. In what the company expects to be its most challenging quarter of the year, organic revenue declined only 3%, supported by stable performance in its CrossLab service and consumables segment, which grew 1%. While the pace of recovery throughout the quarter varied by region depending on when each region faced the brunt of the pandemic, the company exited July with positive growth across all of its regions. Notably, even with a modest revenue decline, the company was able to expand operating margins by 90 basis points year-over-year by effectively managing its cost structure. Agilent’s stock has increased 16% year-to-date.

Since the onset of the pandemic, Agilent has outperformed its comparable peer group with meaningfully lower revenue declines than peers. Despite the ongoing disruption from the pandemic, the company remains highly focused on product innovation and sales efforts to drive market share gains. For example, in its service business, Agilent introduced new workflow solutions to capitalize on the trend of labs outsourcing multiple services to a single vendor. The company has recently won several large, lab-wide, enterprise service contracts. Likewise, in its instrument portfolio, Agilent launched two new mass spectrometry product lines aimed at increasing testing throughput and reducing downtime. We expect these initiatives to drive long-term sales growth as they expand the installed base of Agilent instruments, and increase the penetration of its service and consumables off erings.”

Lightspring/Shutterstock.com