Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 10 of 13

Derik De Bruin: Got it. Okay. And so staying on the topic of M&A. I mean, you’ve done a couple of genomics deals, which haven’t gone your way. And I’m just sort of wondering what’s your thinking about deployment going forward? I mean valuations have obviously come in, industry is consolidating, you would say, but we have — it’s been relatively quiet across the space for the last 18 months. And so like how are you sort of thinking about capital deployment? And at what point do you decide you maybe want to buy — start maybe doing even with the share prices, maybe doing some share buybacks. You sort of talk about your general capital deployment strategy at this moment?

Mike McMullen: Yes. I think Bob alluded to it a bit in his prepared remarks, but we still are staying with our balanced capital allocation strategy, and you saw us in the market opportunistically on share repurchases given where we saw the share price setting that. In terms of our – an appetite for M&A, it remains unchanged given – despite the Resolution Bioscience decision. We knew that was a higher risk acquisition for us, early-stage company in hot area based on a really differentiating strategy that didn’t want this to play out. But we’ve had some success in other aspects of our genomics acquisitions, including the AAT acquisition on the instrumentation side. So we’re still out there looking. But as Bob mentioned, we take a disciplined approach to not only to how we view our internal choices and our internal business performance in terms of what’s in the portfolio, but we’ll also take that same lens, if you will, on how we look at M&A.

So really, nothing has changed beyond the fact that this is more of a buyer’s market. And companies with a strong balance sheet like Agilent, I think they’re in a good favorable position to work on opportunities, but we’re going to stay disciplined and not get caught up in what once was a value of a company, either in the private or public space.

Derik De Bruin: Just one more follow-up, if I may. What are your orders in liquid chromatography? How is your order book? Are you seeing orders increasing?

Robert McMahon: Our order book was down, largely a function of China, but they were down year-on-year.

Derik De Bruin: Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. We’ll go next now to Josh Waldman at Cleveland Research.

Josh Waldman: Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. A couple for you. First, Bob, can you provide more context on the puts and takes within the fourth quarter core organic growth guide? I guess maybe the assumptions by business unit. And then curious what areas or in markets outside of China seem to be like slowing real time that you’re trying to reflect in the guide versus areas that maybe have stabilized or improving over the last few days.

Robert McMahon: Yes. So Josh, just real quick. When we think about kind of the Q4 implied guide, the big driver is China. As I mentioned, down roughly mid-30s and that really impacts a number of markets you can imagine, both AR and chemical and energy, which are – or chemical and advanced materials, which are the two largest markets in China. I would also say that the diagnostics and clinical is also down. We’ve seen that softness in genomics. And then obviously, the shutdown of Res Bio also impacts that business, and that’s primarily a U.S. phenomenon. So we did see an impact in U.S. on that side. And then there’s some puts and takes in other places, but those are the two big pieces for Q4.

Mike McMullen: But as I recall, I think 85% of the change was really China driven and bleeds over into pharma in CAM.

Page 10 of 13