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Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-31

Agilent (A) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Motley Fool
Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET Head of Investor Relations - Tejas Savant Chief Executive Officer - Padraig McDonnell Chief Financial Officer - Adam Elinoff President of the Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets Group - Simon May President of the Agilent CrossLab Group - Angelica Riemann President of the Applied Markets Group - Mike Zhang Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Q3 2026 Agilent Technologies, Inc. Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the call over to Tejas Savant, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin. Tejas Savant: Thank you, and welcome, everyone, to Agilent's conference call for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026. With me on the line are CEO, Padraig McDonnell; and CFO, Adam Elinoff. Joining for the Q&A will be Simon May, President of the Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets Group; Angelica Riemann, President of the Agilent CrossLab Group; and Mike Zhang, President of the Applied Markets Group. This presentation is being webcast live. The press release for our third quarter financial results, investor presentation and information to supplement today's discussion, along with the recording of this webcast, are available on our website at investor.agilent.com. Today's comments will refer to non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP measures are supplemental and should not be considered a substitute for GAAP results. You'll find the most directly comparable GAAP financial metrics and reconciliations in the press release and on our website. Unless otherwise noted, all references to increases or decreases in financial metrics are year-over-year and references to revenue growth are on a core or organic constant currency basis. All references to profitability metrics are on a non-GAAP basis. Core or organic constant currency revenue growth is adjusted for the impact of currency exchange rates and any acquisitions and divestitures completed within the past 12 months. Guidance is based on forecasted exchange rates. During this call, we will make forward-looking statements about the financial performance of the company. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and are only valid as of today. Agilent assumes no obligation to update them. Please refer to the company's recent SEC filings for a more detailed description of the risks…Read full document

Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET Head of Investor Relations - Tejas Savant Chief Executive Officer - Padraig McDonnell Chief Financial Officer - Adam Elinoff President of the Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets Group - Simon May President of the Agilent CrossLab Group - Angelica Riemann President of the Applied Markets Group - Mike Zhang Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Q3 2026 Agilent Technologies, Inc. Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the call over to Tejas Savant, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin. Tejas Savant: Thank you, and welcome, everyone, to Agilent's conference call for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026. With me on the line are CEO, Padraig McDonnell; and CFO, Adam Elinoff. Joining for the Q&A will be Simon May, President of the Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets Group; Angelica Riemann, President of the Agilent CrossLab Group; and Mike Zhang, President of the Applied Markets Group. This presentation is being webcast live. The press release for our third quarter financial results, investor presentation and information to supplement today's discussion, along with the recording of this webcast, are available on our website at investor.agilent.com. Today's comments will refer to non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP measures are supplemental and should not be considered a substitute for GAAP results. You'll find the most directly comparable GAAP financial metrics and reconciliations in the press release and on our website. Unless otherwise noted, all references to increases or decreases in financial metrics are year-over-year and references to revenue growth are on a core or organic constant currency basis. All references to profitability metrics are on a non-GAAP basis. Core or organic constant currency revenue growth is adjusted for the impact of currency exchange rates and any acquisitions and divestitures completed within the past 12 months. Guidance is based on forecasted exchange rates. During this call, we will make forward-looking statements about the financial performance of the company. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and are only valid as of today. Agilent assumes no obligation to update them. Please refer to the company's recent SEC filings for a more detailed description of the risks and other factors that could cause our performance to differ from these forward-looking statements. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Padraig. Padraig McDonnell: Thanks, Tejas, and welcome, everyone. We delivered an excellent third quarter with strong performance on both the top and bottom lines. Our results clearly demonstrate the sustained momentum unlocked by our exceptional commercial and operational execution and the Ignite Operating System against the backdrop of steadily improving end markets. For the third quarter, Agilent reported $1.88 billion in revenue, growing 7.3% on a core basis and exceeding the high end of our guidance by 140 basis points. Our operating margin of 27.2%, excluding the net benefit from tariff refunds, was 80 basis points ahead of our implied guidance of 26.4%, providing further evidence of the strong operating leverage and execution discipline embedded in the business. Including the net benefit from tariff refunds of $20 million, our operating margin was 28.3%. Our earnings per share of $1.56 on an ex refund basis were $0.06 above the high end of our guidance range of $1.48 to $1.50, representing robust year-over-year growth of 14%. Including the net benefit from tariff refunds, our earnings per share were $1.62. Make no mistake, our extraordinary Q3 results are no accident, nor are purely a function of improving end markets. Rather, they reflect the momentum created by our 4 key elements of our strategy. First, we continue to build on our unparalleled customer intimacy and trust. This differentiation is increasingly translating into share gains across key workflows and geographies. Second, that customer intimacy informs our innovation engine, resulting in distinct solutions that drive success for our customers and Agilent. Third, at the core of our success is a deep and increasingly capable bench of talent. As our organizational capabilities continue to strengthen, we are improving speed, agility and operational discipline, resulting in a step function improvement in execution. And finally, the compounding benefits of Ignite are now increasingly visible. I want to take a moment to reflect on our transformation journey. We announced our Ignite transformation in late 2024. Our earliest efforts emphasize strategic pricing, procurement and tariff mitigation. Since then, Ignite has broadened and now underpins every aspect of how Agilent operates. This includes reinvigorating our innovation engine, strengthening our supply chain agility and operational discipline and streamlining our structure and unlocking greater value through our integrated business model, which drives meaningful cross-selling of our LC and GC solutions across our pharma and applied customers. The enterprise capabilities we have developed with Ignite across commercial execution, innovation, manufacturing, supply chain and digital have strengthened the business and created inherent resiliency throughout the organization. All this positions us to deliver superior performance and navigate uncertainty in any environment. Before providing specifics on our third quarter results, I want to talk about Agilent's key growth drivers going forward. These include stronger commercial execution against improving conditions across our largest end markets, renewed momentum in China, innovation, the instrument replacement cycle, pharma and semiconductor reshoring and Ignite's compounding impact on our results. Starting with our end markets. Our largest end markets continue to improve, and our teams are converting that improvement into results through strong commercial execution, while a differentiated portfolio and best-in-class service drive share gain. Pharma grew 12% in the quarter, well ahead of our high single-digit expectations and growth rates reported by our peers. As our large customers remain on a sound footing, we are starting to see stronger funding environment translate into improved spending from our small and mid-cap biotech customers, which is reflected in our excellent results. Our advanced therapeutics division, which includes NASD and BIOVECTRA specialty CDMO operations grew nearly 30%. ATD's performance reflects strong demand and disciplined execution as we expand our capacity and prepare for the next phase of our growth. Like pharma, we saw particularly strong demand across our applied markets portfolio. Chemicals and advanced materials grew 7%, ahead of our mid-single-digit guide. Growth was led by an outstanding performance in advanced materials despite a low double-digit year-over-year compare. Our leadership across the applied markets and the strength of our installed base positions us well to benefit from semiconductor investment and a broader AI infrastructure build-out over the near and medium term. Diagnostics and clinical grew at the high end of the mid-single-digit range, slightly below our high single-digit guide. However, underlying orders grew at a robust double-digit rate, giving us confidence in the durability of the business and its growth outlook. The improving end market picture was complemented by a notable step-up in China, which grew 9%, well ahead of our flat expectation. Our long-standing presence and deep customer relationships in the country, along with localized manufacturing, go-to-market capabilities and exposure to attractive end markets underpinned our exceptional performance in the quarter. Importantly, we delivered this performance despite minimal China stimulus benefit and see the momentum continuing into year-end. The upside was driven by strong execution with commercial accounts, especially within the pharma and food end markets. We saw competitive wins in China that highlight the strength of our differentiated portfolio and services offering. Those wins include 2 leading CXOs and an enterprise service contract win with a marquee local pharma customer. In applied, a leading commercial testing lab chose us over the competition to serve their increasing PFAS testing needs. As we look ahead, we are well positioned to benefit from 3 emerging growth drivers in the region. First, biotech innovation in China, combined with investment from global pharma companies is creating meaningful demand for our CXO customers. Our customer support and service infrastructure continues to differentiate Agilent and our unparalleled customer intimacy positions us as a trusted strategic partner for these CXOs. Second, we are seeing an inflection in contract testing laboratory volumes, particularly testing activity related to food safety and materials exports. Demand for our differentiated PFAS testing solutions is strong. Our complete end-to-end workflows from sample preparation and analytical instrumentation to application and regulatory expertise is enabling us to win against the competition. And finally, the AI capital investment build-out in China plays directly into our strengths in GC, GC/MS and spectroscopy. The recently launched 9500 Triple Quad ICP-MS is off to a strong start in the region with semiconductor supply chain customers already contributing to robust order funnel. Last quarter, we announced the launch of our China Innovation Center and are now in the early phase of lab automation software co-development with a leading commercial testing customer ahead of building a fully automated lab. We are also partnering with a cutting-edge local biotech company that is leveraging AI to automate drug discovery workflows on our instrument platforms. These partnerships are generating positive momentum for us in the region while strengthening our R&D capabilities in AI and automation to better support our customers. Even as instruments such as the Infinity III LC continue to drive our performance, we're looking forward to contributions from the next wave of innovations that will strengthen our installed base and support recurring consumables and service pull-through. Our recent product launches at the ASMS conference in June are all off to a strong start. The 9500 ICP-MS, the flagship GC systems and our Altura column family are tracking ahead of plan simultaneously. This shows our innovation engine working across the portfolio, reducing our reliance on any single star product. We are seeing strong demand across all regions for the 9500 and already have exceeded our ramp to volume target despite beginning shipments in late July. The funnel now exceeds $60 million. The 9500s value proposition, increased productivity, lower cost of ownership and ease of use is resonating strongly while supporting customer technology migration from single quad to triple quad systems. We have also received excellent customer feedback on our new 8890B and 8860B flagship GCs. Customers are excited about the productivity and GC Assist intelligence features on the systems, which started to ship in July. Orders over the first 2 months exceeded expectations by more than 2x with strong demand across all regions. Turning to our consumables portfolio. We further expanded the Altura family at ASMS by launching columns for analytical workflows in protein peptide therapeutics, large oligonucleotides, gene therapy and vaccines. We have seen fantastic customer response to date since shipments began last month. The increasing set of high-profile applications that our growing Altura portfolio is addressing has resulted in land-and-expand dynamic in customer accounts. We saw 28% quarter-over-quarter growth in the number of new accounts adopting biopharma Altura columns. In multiple biopharma accounts, we have seen the initial adoption of one Altura column for a single application translate into the customer purchasing multiple Altura column chemistries for different applications. And we're not done yet. Expect continued expansion of the Altura family for new use cases in the quarters ahead. In pathology, expansion of the Omnis family continues to bring laboratory automation to an entirely new customer set. Moreover, the recent close of the Biocare transaction in late June builds on that momentum by expanding our clinically focused antibody menu and complementing our pathology offering. The business is off to a solid start and the integration is progressing well. Turning to spectroscopy. We continue to build momentum with the Raman Insight series. Following the initial $9 million contract win with the TSA we mentioned earlier this year, we've seen use cases expand from airport security checkpoints at FIFA World Cup host cities to other cities in the U.S. Both the new Insight BRT and Insight300 aviation security products have achieved major milestones this quarter and are now certified to variants of the latest U.S. and European detection standards, respectively. Both systems contain truly first-of-its-kind technology to enhance safety and streamline operations at security checkpoints. We continue to be optimistic that the opportunity could expand through further RFPs in the U.S. and adoption in Europe and beyond. Turning to the instrument performance in Q3. We had another very strong quarter of instrument revenue, delivering high single-digit growth against a high single-digit comparison as we continue to reap the dual benefit of our LC and GC replacement cycles. LC revenue grew low double digits despite a mid-teens comparison. This is a truly outstanding result, reflecting strong customer response to the Infinity III LC and the value customers are seeing in upgrading fleets to improve productivity, reliability and workflow efficiency. On the GC side, we saw low single-digit growth, a strong result considering the high single-digit year-over-year compare. Q3 book-to-bill came in above 1, marking the 10th consecutive quarter where instrument orders met or grew faster than revenue. Our healthy book-to-bill supports near-term demand and our LC and GC replacement cycles come with an ample runway ahead. The excellent momentum we are seeing across the portfolio is also reflected in our latest Agilent customer experience survey with more than 85% of our customers rated their experience as highly favorable in relation to purchasing decisions, onboarding solution use and support. I'm especially delighted that we saw our highest score ever for onboarding and support with a satisfaction rate at or above 95%. Beyond the instrument replacement cycle, early gains from reshoring dynamics are now beginning to materialize, underpinning a sustainable multiyear instrument growth opportunity ahead of us. In pharma, we booked our initial reshoring orders in Q3 ahead of our expectations, and the funnel continues to build. The steady increase in the number of active construction sites following the 17 pharmaceutical manufacturer agreements announced under the Trump administration's MFN program reinforces our top-down view of the pharma reshoring opportunity we laid out last year. Moreover, our commercial teams are now engaging in meaningful dialogue with most of these customers, 3/4 of whom happen to be part of our strategic customer program. In fact, we have secured reshoring orders from 5 of the top 10 pharma companies in the world in the third quarter alone. We continue to expect more meaningful order benefit from pharma reshoring around year-end, with revenue contributions building in fiscal 2027 and beyond. Further, the reshoring opportunity for Agilent extends beyond pharma to semiconductor, a key differentiator for us compared to our peers. Semiconductor customers continue to invest in regional supply chain capacity, which in combination with AI CapEx build-out should underpin the robust growth in our advanced materials end market over the medium term. The Ignite Operating System is powering our commercial and operations organization as well as accelerating innovation momentum. The scope and impact of Ignite once again clearly visible in the third quarter. Our strategic pricing initiatives delivered approximately 200 basis points in Q3. We have now surpassed our initial full year target of more than 100 basis points. While strategic pricing supported the top line, our operating profit is growing faster than sales. Operating margin in the quarter, excluding the tariff refund net benefit of approximately 110 basis points, expanded by over 210 basis points year-over-year. We're generating more returns on every incremental revenue dollar, giving us financial flexibility. This traces back to Ignite, the engine at the heart of our company-wide operating system. Another shining example of Ignite in action is our push for manufacturing excellence. There, we are being front-footed in building resilience across our business and setting up the organization to deliver durable long-term growth while nimbly navigating shifts in end markets, trade and geopolitical dynamics. And our internally developed AI-enabled supply chain control tower is improving prediction and enabling adaptive calibration of supply and demand plans. During the quarter, our order to shipment conversion rate improved meaningfully year-over-year, reinforcing the agility we have built in operations. Enhanced shipment prediction and greater risk visibility ensure our ability to rapidly flex supply across our instruments and consumables portfolio in lockstep with customer demand. Rapid factory turnaround is also helping us respond to demand faster with the customer requested delivery date performance reaching a record 95%. As part of our global operations transformation, we moved to a more agile, regionally led distributed manufacturing model. This structure enabled our regional hubs in Asia to respond quickly during the quarter to strong demand conditions. Importantly, we did so without adding headcount and despite having to navigate rising material costs and supply chain headwinds. As Ignite strengthens our operations, we are applying the same disciplined approach to building our next-generation digital and AI capabilities. Our digital initiative continues to make it easier for customers to do business with Agilent while lowering our cost per transaction. Customers' overall experience on agilent.com continues to track ahead of our targets with new online orders growing in the low teens in Q3. Starting last quarter, we have moved our enterprise AI strategy into execution. We mobilized our partnership with OpenAI and BCG X, advanced solutions focused on the commercial customer journey and continued building the Agilent AI center of excellence to help us move from individual initiatives to repeatable enterprise delivery. While AI capability is advancing quickly and becoming broadly available, our differentiation lies in how we apply it. Combining AI with Agilent's proprietary data, scientific knowledge and customer understanding enables us to redesign workflows, improving how decisions are made and how work gets done. This is how we move beyond isolated productivity gains to create durable value that is difficult to replicate. We are leveraging AI to transform software development to create highly integrated enterprise solutions that deliver a seamless and superior customer experience. Our use of AI is not simply about helping the developers code faster, but will shorten the software development life cycle from planning and design through development, testing and deployment. Our targeted approach will accelerate the pace at which we bring differentiated software releases to market. In parallel, we are focused on delivering near-term value in priority workflows, including the commercial customer journey and our manufacturing operations. We continue to scale our AI investments with discipline based on our demonstrated customer outcome adoption and business value. Before I turn to sharing financial details of our Q3 results, I want to highlight the marked progress we have made in the area that is important to our customers, employees and shareholders, sustainability. This quarter, we continue to programmatically embed sustainability in everything we do, facility design, engineering projects and product design and are making excellent progress to our committed pledges. Through a formal structure, dedicated leadership within our global operations function and a thoughtful road map, we're seeing the impact of our efforts. Agilent was named as TIME's World's Most Sustainable Companies and Newsweek's World's Greenest Companies in 2026. Further, our latest MSCI ESG assessment resulted in an upgrade from AA to AAA. We also joined the United Nations Global Compact and received My Green Lab's 2025 Sustainable Lab Product Innovation Award for our flagship Infinity III LC. These achievements reflect the collective efforts of the teams across Agilent to strengthen our sustainability programs. I'm delighted to see that progress recognized externally. Now let me share some additional details on our Q3 results, starting with our end markets. As I mentioned earlier, pharma grew 12% this quarter. Within pharma, biotech grew double digits and small molecule grew mid-single digits. Our GLP-1 momentum continues, delivering more than 70% year-over-year growth in the quarter with a robust contribution from both our CDMO and analytical lab businesses. CAM grew 7% and environmental and forensics delivered 5% growth, both exceeding our expectations. Importantly, PFAS grew 20% despite a low double-digit compare. Diagnostics and clinical grew 6%, just shy of our expectations. Robust double-digit order growth in pathology in the quarter gives us confidence in the underlying demand and health of this business. Food was roughly flat in the quarter, ahead of our expectations for a low single-digit decline. Academic and government, our smallest end market, declined 3%, modestly below our expectations. However, on an ex-China basis, the end market was up low single digits. Most importantly, our customer-centric approach is working, and we continue to win against the competition in all major geographies. Turning to updated guidance. Building on an excellent third quarter and with the outlook for our end markets broadly continuing to improve, we now expect core growth of 5.8% to 6% for the full year. At the midpoint, this represents an increase of 65 basis points versus our prior guide. Our full year growth is now poised to approach the midpoint of our long-range plan. Moreover, on a 2-year stack basis, our revised guide implies that core growth has now accelerated from flat in 2025 to almost 11%, an exceptional outcome separating us from our peers. Importantly, our robust top line performance is translating into excellent operating leverage. We're increasing our EPS expectations to a range of $6.18 to $6.21 for the full year, $0.15 higher than our prior forecast at the midpoint. Excluding the net benefit of tariff refunds of approximately $0.06 in the third quarter, earnings per share of $6.12 to $6.15 are now expected to grow at 10% at the midpoint for the full year, in line with our long-range plan of double-digit EPS growth. And with that, let me hand over to Adam, who will provide additional details on the quarter and our financial outlook for the remainder of the year. Adam Elinoff: Thanks, Padraig, and good afternoon, everyone. In my comments today, I will provide additional details on revenue in the quarter as well as walk through the income statement and cover other key financial metrics. I'll then cover our updated full year and fourth quarter guidance. Starting with Q3. Revenue was $1.88 billion. On a core or organic constant currency basis, we posted growth of 7.3%, while reported growth was 8.1%. Currency had a favorable impact of 0.2%, a lower tailwind than our May guidance. LDG revenue grew 10% on a core basis, nicely ahead of expectations. Low double-digit growth in LC and nearly 30% growth in our specialty CDMO advanced therapeutic division drove performance. We expect flattish growth in ATD in the fourth quarter when the segment laps a tough year-over-year compare of over 40%. As you might recall, we achieved mechanical completion of our Train C build-out last quarter, positioning us well to begin revenue generation at the new facility next spring. Our cancer diagnostics business was driven by strong growth in companion diagnostics and genomics. Biocare delivered $10 million in Q3 following close of the transaction. We are excited by the solid start and look forward to the impact of Biocare's clinically focused antibody menu on our pathology business. AMG grew 7% in the quarter on a core basis, well ahead of our low single-digit expectations. Growth was led by high single-digit increase in spectroscopy in addition to double-digit performance in vacuum. Like last quarter, those businesses continue to see strong demand for their market-leading tools to support semiconductor production. ACG grew north of 5% in the quarter on a core basis, modestly ahead of our forecast, driven by strong performance in consumables. Looking ahead, our ongoing installed base expansion will fuel consumables uptake in addition to service revenue growth following the initial warranty period. On a geographic basis, the biggest driver of upside in the quarter was China, where we grew 9%, well ahead of our flat expectations, driven by double-digit growth in pharma and food. Asia ex-China revenue also grew 9% with robust double-digit growth in pharma and CAM. Americas grew 10%. The growth was broad-based with low to mid-teens performance in pharma, diagnostics and clinical and environmental and forensics. Europe grew low single digits on a tough year-over-year compare with mid-single-digit growth in diagnostics and clinical, CAM and academic and government. Q3 gross margins were 56.4%. Excluding an approximately 160 basis point net benefit from tariff refunds, gross margins were 54.9%. This represents a healthy 180 basis point improvement year-over-year from strong leverage on incremental volumes and Ignite momentum. Operating margin was 28.3% in the quarter. Excluding an approximately 110 basis point net benefit from tariff refunds, operating margin was 27.2%, an increase of 210 basis points year-over-year, driven by our healthy gross margin performance and compounding Ignite efficiencies. Moving below the line, we had $5 million of other income, while our tax rate of 14.5% was as expected. Finally, we had 283 million diluted shares outstanding in the quarter, in line with expectations. Putting it all together, Q3 earnings per share were $1.62, which includes a $0.06 net benefit from tariff refunds. Excluding this impact, earnings per share of $1.56 grew 14% year-over-year, a reflection of our superior execution and Ignite-led structural improvement in our operations. Now let me turn to the cash flow and balance sheet. Operating cash flow in the quarter was $519 million, and we invested $80 million in capital expenditures. The strong operating cash flow performance reflects operational excellence and improved collections as well as the net benefit of tariff refunds. Our free cash flow of $439 million represents a non-GAAP net income conversion ratio of 96%. We purchased $78 million in shares and paid $72 million in dividends in Q3. Finally, in conjunction with the Biocare acquisition, we successfully completed our $600 million senior notes offering in late June. We ended the quarter with a net leverage ratio of 1 turn, maintaining our strong balance sheet. Now let me share some additional details on the updated outlook for the year and the guidance for the fourth quarter. Based on the strong performance, we now expect fiscal year '26 revenue to be in the range of $7.49 billion to $7.51 billion on a reported basis. This range represents growth of 5.8% to 6% on a core or organic constant currency basis, an increase of 65 basis points at the midpoint versus the prior guide. Currency is now expected to be a 1.6% tailwind during the year. Turning to our end markets, business segment and geographic growth assumptions. Based on strong results year-to-date and our outlook for the fourth quarter, we are raising our full year expectations for CAM from mid- to high to high single-digit growth. Our growth assumptions across the rest of our end markets remain unchanged. Turning to our segments. We now expect mid- to high single-digit growth for both AMG and LDG versus our prior mid-single-digit forecast to reflect our strong year-to-date performance and continuing momentum into year-end. We continue to expect mid-single-digit growth for ACG. Regionally, we are increasing our expectations for China and Asia ex China. We now expect China to grow at mid-single digits, while Asia ex China is expected to grow double digits. In Europe, we now expect low single-digit growth for the full year, while our growth assumption for the Americas remains unchanged at mid- to high single digit. Moving down the P&L. On an ex tariff refund basis, we are increasing our full year operating margin expansion target to over 100 basis points at the midpoint of our revenue guidance versus our prior forecast of 85 basis points. Including the tariff refunds we received in the third quarter, this represents operating margin expansion of over 130 basis points. Our expected tax rate is unchanged at 14.5%. We continue to expect $31 million in other income and 283 million diluted shares outstanding for the year. On an ex tariff refund basis, fiscal year '26 earnings per share are now expected to be between $6.12 and $6.15, an increase of $0.09 at the midpoint, representing robust earnings growth of 10%. Including the net benefit of refunds received in Q3, earnings per share are expected to be between $6.18 and $6.21, representing growth of 11%. For your modeling, let me share some additional expectations we have incorporated into our guidance for the year. While the Middle East conflict and demand for memory chips continue to pressure our costs, we are confident that the Ignite Operating System will deliver meaningful efficiencies and help absorb those inflationary impacts within our Q4 outlook. There is no change to our operating cash flow range of $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion and we expect to invest approximately $450 million in capital expenditures. The updated full year guidance implies that reported revenue in the fourth quarter will be in the range of $1.98 billion to $2 billion. This represents growth of roughly 5.2% to 6.2% on a core or organic constant currency basis, while currency is expected to be a 10 basis point headwind. It is important to note that this growth represents continued structural acceleration on a 2-year stack basis, excluding ATD, which we expect will be flattish this quarter, as I stated earlier. Our fourth quarter guide also includes revenue contribution of approximately $23 million from Biocare. Together, EPS is expected to be in the range of $1.71 to $1.74, representing growth of 8% to 9%, assuming 283 million diluted shares outstanding. And finally, I wanted to be clear that our fourth quarter guide does not include any future benefit from potential tariff refunds. With that, I'll turn the call over to Padraig for closing comments. Padraig McDonnell: Thanks, Adam. Our third quarter performance once again demonstrates the accelerating momentum of the business and the quality of Agilent's execution. We delivered excellent top and bottom line results while continuing to invest in capabilities that will drive profitable above-market growth in years ahead. Our value proposition remains highly differentiated, a broad and resilient portfolio across attractive end markets and geographies, leadership in essential analytic and clinical workflows, an innovation engine grounded in customer intimacy, commercial and operations excellence and best-in-class service. All underpinned by the Ignite Operating System, which is raising performance across every facet of Agilent. Together, these strengths give us multiple avenues to succeed and position Agilent to sustainably outperform the competition. We are looking forward to finishing the year on a strong note and entering 2027 from a position of strength. Before we close, I want to thank our customers for their trust and express my gratitude to the Agilent team. Their commitment, customer focus and our exceptional execution made these results possible. And with that, I'll turn back to Tejas. Tejas Savant: Thanks, Padraig. Operator, can you please share the instructions for the Q&A? Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Jack Meehan with Operon. Jack Meehan: I wanted to focus on the specialty CDMO business. So strong growth, nearly 30% in the quarter. That was ahead of what I was expecting. Can you talk about the visibility on this business into 2027? Obviously, the GLP-1 demand has been very strong, but I get a lot of questions about some of your top customers in NASD as well. I was just wondering if you could talk about the outlook for this business. Padraig McDonnell: Yes. Thanks, Jack. I'll pass it over to Adam here in a second. But first of all, really pleased with the performance of nearly 30% growth, which was really within our expectations and moving along nicely. But Adam, do you want to add some detail on that? Adam Elinoff: Sure. Thanks, Padraig, and thanks, Jack. Effectively, as you think about the CDMO business over the longer term, we've talked about a mid-teens growth over the LRP period, and we still feel very confident about that. The second piece is we have Train C coming online, and that's in the spring. And so as you think about that, that will start generating revenue in that period. And then over the next 6 to 8 quarters, that's when we expect it to ramp up to full capacity. The other piece, and you asked about our confidence in how we're thinking about the business, our order book is really building very nicely, and we have the majority of our capacity available in Train C spoken for already. And then just as the last piece as you're thinking about the business, just recognize as we start to bring Train C online, we'll start -- our capacity in the base CDMO business will start to hit full capacity. So then that incremental Train C will allow us to grow again. So I feel very confident going forward. Jack Meehan: Excellent. Okay. And then just to stick on this topic, I was wondering if you could talk about margin dynamics related to the specialty CDMO business. I was just trying to figure out, obviously, 27.2% strip out the tariff dynamics in the quarter, it was a very healthy result. I was wondering how much the CDMO business contributed to that because I know it can be healthy margins and what's contemplated in terms of the phasing into 4Q? Adam Elinoff: Yes. So in general terms, we don't break out the CDMO business. But in general terms, the way we think about it is it should be roughly aligned to our broader business when it's running at full capacity. Then if you think about next year, especially as we're bringing on Train C, we'll be hiring staff in advance, and we'll start depreciating the facility in the early part of the year and then starting to get revenue later part of the year. That said, any margin -- negative margin impact, we've committed to mitigating through our Ignite Operating System. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Vijay Kumar with Evercore. Vijay Kumar: Congratulations on a nice print here. Maybe, Padraig, my first one was on your comment on reshoring was interesting. You noted 5 customers. You received orders, and this is ahead of expectations, right? So is there any way to quantify what the order size is? Any change in your $1 billion expectations for the industry and how to think about contribution for fiscal '27? Padraig McDonnell: Yes. So I think we're -- we sized the opportunity at about $1 billion through 2030, and we expect to at least win 1/3 of that. We feel really good about that, Vijay. Having visited a number of these sites over the last few months, it's been great to see the momentum and how we're moving with setting up and getting ready to get it ready to put its systems in, et cetera. So one of the things that's kind of probably good to say is the broader benefit versus peers, we include LC services and GC in these companies where we've seen 45 onshoring sites that have been designated. We see that we have about 15,000 instruments installed globally. So we have a large installed base that reflects future going forward on the reshoring sites. And it's going to take a bit of time. We already have some orders coming in, which is great to see, and these are in forward stocking locations ready to go into sites. And of course, our teams are helping plan how the labs are set up, et cetera, on it. So I think we feel very good about it. We're going to see the revenue start to come in, in '27. It's going to be not linear. I think you're going to see differences in different quarters as we go forward, but I think it's going to be really important. And one of the things that's been very compelling to us is that we -- out of the first onshore reshoring orders that we've done, it includes 5 out of the top 10 global pharma companies in Q3 alone. And what you will see going forward is that we expect that to continue. One of the things that we invested in, in the company a number of years ago, which is really playing dividends is our strategic customer program. And 75% of the MFN signatories are in that strategic customer program. So that's what means we have a global read on what's happening. So that's how we read it. So we feel really good about it. Vijay Kumar: That's helpful. And then maybe one more follow-up for. What gets -- when you think about fiscal '27, we're exiting Q4, 6% organic. High level, what gets better, what gets worse when you think about GLP-1s, PFAS, new products, China, et cetera, any high-level comments on what gets better versus worse? Padraig McDonnell: Yes. I mean it's -- I knew you had to ask, Vijay, the question, but I think we're -- we'll wait until the next quarter to talk about '27 in detail. But what I can say is that we're going in Q4 with a lot of momentum. You see the progress in China was very, very positive, a step-up. We see that continuing. It might be linear through next year, but we see that continuing. So we're really feeling good about the momentum in Q3 going into Q4. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Tycho Peterson with Jefferies. Tycho Peterson: Maybe just starting with the CDMO guide here. So you're guiding 12% had been mid-teens. So how much of what you saw in this quarter was kind of a timing issue? And I appreciate, Adam, the comments on Train C. I'm just curious if you can quantify anything around bookings or how much of the expected growth is being driven by existing programs versus new demand? I know you've talked about multiple high-growth indications in the pipeline for Train C as we think about that next year. Adam Elinoff: Yes. So why don't I start, and I'll just give you some more color on the 2026 guide. So once again, 30% growth we saw in the quarter and then year-to-date, we're at about 16% growth. And where we're calling for flattish, that's really driven by the timing of some regulatory-related submissions of our customers. And so those are expected to have responses right toward the end of the quarter. So depending on where those come out, that's how the full year guide will play out. And then specifically for 2027, and I'll pass over to Simon in a moment just to talk a little bit more about the longer-term view of the business. Like I said, we have more than a majority of the capacity filled with bookings from a variety of different customers. Importantly, though, these are some larger scale programs, and we're excited about where they'll go and the opportunity for the future. So with that, I'll pass it over to Simon. Simon May: Yes. Just a couple of quick things to add. I'd say in terms of the FY '27 ramp, we've continued to make good progress with the Endeavor mechanical completion and marching towards the next spring go-live. And we're focused there initially on a high-volume commercialization process implementation in train. So of the available capacity that we're going to have in FY '27, I'd say 75% of that is currently spoken for with POs. We've also had a couple of other notable process validations for larger indications in the last quarter alone. And I think this just really reinforces the medium, long-term view that we've got on this business and how well positioned siRNA is as a modality with these larger indications. The pipeline is very strong. The demand signals that we're seeing from our customers are very strong. And I think the timing of Train C is really well timed. Padraig McDonnell: Yes, that's great, Simon. Just one thing to remind everybody as well, Q4 '26, we expect flat growth, but it's over a very challenging 40% year-over-year compare [indiscernible]. Tycho Peterson: Okay. That's helpful. And then my follow-up just on margins. I understand you don't want to talk a lot about '27 at this point, but you'll do over 130 bps this year. You've made a lot of progress on Ignite. As we think about next year, you don't have the tariff or refund impact. You've been pretty clear on kind of the pricing strategy. So I guess, any color or comments you're willing to say on margins for next year? I mean the Street is at 80 bps. I mean it feels like you could do north of 100. How do you think about just the margin trajectory over the next year? Adam Elinoff: Yes. So I'll take this one. Thanks, Tycho, for the question. We're not going to be guiding for 2027, as you would expect. But I would say that we do feel very good about the momentum of the business, but also about our Ignite program, which we've talked about. And that gives us confidence in the long-range plan we have in place now. And as we work through the numbers here in preparation for our Q4 call, we're in a good position, and I feel very good about both 2027 and beyond. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Ryskin with Bank of America. Michael Ryskin: Maybe I will start on China. You kind of called out the strength there, and you bumped the guide on that. And that's on China A&G being a little bit weaker. And as you called out, I think the stimulus was not having a big impact yet. So I just like to unpack that a little bit more. I mean I think you called out pharma and food. Maybe go into a little more detail on where you saw that, if that's more local customers, multinationals, biotech or more like the CDMO side. Just want to get a little bit better sense of how China turned around so much this quarter. I got a follow-up. Padraig McDonnell: Yes. And just recently back as well, which was great to be there opening our innovation center and seeing the pace of the business there was great and also meeting the teams and customers. I think if you look at our pharma, strong double-digit growth, you see, first of all, our GLP-1 and peptide testing. We see continued adoption of innovative therapies and increased investment from biotech. Biotech grew double digits, and that was due to the influx of investment into China by pharma. Everybody can see that from the large pharma investments. But also, I would say you have R&D coming in, but also you have homegrown innovative drugs that are really taking shape now. And the momentum is really driven by that new R&D and new modalities. One thing that we are very pleased about is our small molecule grew mid-teens, and that's growing investment in the R&D pipeline for novel first-in-class small molecule drugs. And that, of course, benefits us because we're downstream with our tools on that side. And you can see that China is becoming more and continuing important region for drug development. And just moving along, if you look along the businesses, our CAM business grew high single digits, and that's over a really tough compare of low double digits year-over-year. And you see that driven by really a number of things. First of all, the AI infrastructure expansion and our advanced materials business in China grew high teens. Although we saw a little bit of a bit softer in C&E due to macroeconomic pressures, we're also seeing our spectroscopy and vacuum products growing double digit. Again, food, a really bright spot for us, robust mid-teens growth in food. And again, that's really great across the testing volumes that we're seeing. So I think growth is driven by broad-based government contract labs, academia and research lab investments. And what we're seeing is a number of competitive wins in the quarter because of the strength of our portfolio. We see the Altura columns doing well and really strong, I would say, demand for PFAS, which continues to grow in that area. So I think we won a number of really key marquee wins with a competitive win with 2 leading CXOs and of course, winning in PFAS. So I think we're very bullish about China for the future. Again, we were stable at about $300 million a quarter. You see the inflection point now. Of course, there's a long way to go. But in Q4, we're guiding strongly as well. But we see strong momentum into China continuing to the year-end, and we're increasing our guide from high mid-single digits to -- from flat and our Q4 guidance is high single digits. Michael Ryskin: Okay. And my follow-up is on CAM. Actually, you touched on it a little bit in your comments right there. You talked about advanced materials being a little bit stronger, C&E being a little bit softer because of the macro. Would just love to unpack that a little bit more. I mean, expectations for that to continue? Do you see sort of a light at the end of the tunnel there? Or are you expecting more of the same going forward? And then that's on the C&E side. And then on the other side, on the advanced materials, just talk a little bit about the strength there. You called out some of the reshoring initiatives in semi there, too. Just would love to see how much traction, how many -- how much runway do you think you have there? Padraig McDonnell: Yes. Thanks for the question. So CAM grew 7% in the quarter, and that was above our mid-single-digit guide and robust growth from advanced materials. We had double-digit growth in advanced materials, and that was really important across all geographies more or less. C&E grew low single digits, but that again was against a tough compare of low double digits. And across the C&E business on a regional basis, you see APAC, our Asia business led by refining and base chemical business. China benefited from specialty chemical business. So overall, pretty solid. What I will say going forward in CAM, we see the semi opportunity a really, really important opportunity over the long term. Just to put it into context, the semi opportunity is about 3% to 4% of Agilent's revenue. We see fabs instrument demand 18 to 24 months after the fab. And there's really kind of a number of drivers. First of all, investment in the semiconductor space, you can see that across the globe and as you see tariff policies and, of course, geopolitical reshoring in a number of areas. And we typically see instrument demand 18 to 24 months after the fab. But again, you see after that, you see advanced technology nodes and production volumes. So what comes from this actually in these fabs, et cetera, is PFAS testing, which is going to be a long tail of growth for us. So overall, we're very pleased with the business, and we expect to continue to see it growing. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Dan Leonard with RBC. Dan Leonard: I'm trying to think further on the sustainability of that double-digit growth rate in pharma. How dependent is double-digit growth in that end market on your CDMO business? In other words, what would you have grown without the advanced therapeutics business, 30% growth rate? Padraig McDonnell: Yes. So look, we're really, really pleased with our biopharma and pharma business. And biopharma, the end, we grew by 12% overall, 9% ex CDMO. And you can see the overhang from the MFN deals really, really help. And the biotech grew double digits. And of course, you see CDMO growing nearly 30%. So I think -- and again, you underpin that with a really strong GLP result of 70% growth. So overall, we see a lot of reason to see this market continuing to grow. You think about a replacement cycle, which is crucial. It's a big part of this business continuing to hum along. Look at our instrument business on the LC side. And also, you see that you talked -- Simon and Adam talked about the demand on the CDMO side and what we're planning for Train C, et cetera, next year. And then you underpin that with reshoring. So you see that pharma, I think we feel really good about the future on that in Q4 and of course, going forward. Dan Leonard: And then my follow-up question, Padraig, is on that reshoring point. So now that you're -- you have some early proof points and wins, do you have any sense for how much of the reshoring demand is incremental versus substitution? And really, what I'm trying to balance here is that low single-digit growth rate in Europe with all the positive reshoring commentary around your Americas business? Padraig McDonnell: Yes, it's pretty straightforward. I would say instruments and services are all incremental. Consumables is a little bit different by the nature of it. But I would say you can take it that the instrument and service business is all incremental. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Puneet Souda with Leerink. Puneet Souda: I just wanted to see if you could parse out a bit about the pharma versus SMID biotech versus small biotech. I think you talked about small biotech was still lagging last quarter. Could you talk about how did that fare in the quarter? And I'll just ask my second question here. The mRNA personalized cancer vaccine had quite a remarkable data. The category is expected to expand with further indication expansion. Just wondering how are you thinking about the opportunity there for Agilent? Obviously, you've gone into new modalities and in the expanded positions with CDMO. So just wondering how are you thinking about that? Padraig McDonnell: Yes. I'll take the first part, and I'll hand over to Simon on the mRNA side. So we've seen -- we have a relatively small exposure, but I would say encouraging uptick in small to midsized biotech. And you can see that in general, if you look at the macros in H1 '26, the total biopharma financing rose to $60 billion, doubling from $30 billion. So there's a huge amount of money going into the space. And you have underpinned that with a looming patent cliff, which is heightened demand focus on M&A. You see a lot of the licensing deals that are going in. So we're beginning to see the small and midsized biotech spending return. We continue to -- we expect that's going to continue over the next few quarters given the macros that we talked about. So we feel that's going to be an important part of it. But again, we have a relatively small exposure to that area. But Simon, maybe you can talk a little bit about the new drug modality. Simon May: Yes. Certainly, we saw a pretty pivotal clinical trial readout in the very recent past year around mRNA that very much caught our attention. I think we obviously view it as really positive news, but I'd say it's going to be delayed impacts. The mRNA modality has been in the trough for a number of years now for quite a few reasons that I think we probably understand quite well. But I think what this did is really validated real-world potential of mRNA as a modality in oncology applications. And we think that's ultimately going to mean good news both for analytical lab and for CDMO. We've got strong capabilities in both areas. But to be clear, I don't think we'll see any immediate material impact there, but something to look out for, for the future. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Dan Brennan with TD Cowen. Daniel Brennan: Great. Maybe just going back to China for my first one. So just China was substantially above what you guys expected 9% versus flat. So on 20% of your revenues, that's almost the whole level of the beat. Obviously, you guys are pointing to strength throughout the whole business. But I'm just wondering like outside of China, when you think about -- I know Europe was a bit weaker than expected in kind of North America. Like how would you characterize the trends outside of China, just given how strong China was? Padraig McDonnell: Yes. I mean China was -- we're really pleased to see what happened there in the businesses. And Americas, growing at 10%, really exceeding our high single-digit expectations, really, really strong. And again, that's without any reshoring benefit yet, et cetera, on that side. In Americas, we saw high teens in biotech and mid-single digits in small molecule. So overall, I think, again, on Americas, A&G slightly declined, but a relatively small business for us. In Europe, again, in Europe, I wouldn't read too much into that number. It grew 2%, but that was over a really tough compare. Diagnostics, clinical and CAM and academia and government all grew mid-single digits. And pharma grew low single digits, but that was against a low double-digit compare in the side of it. Of course, on the academia side and government, we see some funding going into defense, and that's normal to see. I think you can expect that to continue, but again, a relatively small part of the business. And then Asia doing extremely well as well as we go forward. So overall, we feel really good about it. I wouldn't read too much into Europe, and I think China was a real standout for us and a step up. Daniel Brennan: Terrific. And then maybe just a follow-up just on CAM. Just on the chemical and energy side of that business. I know last quarter was better than expected, and you talked about a conservative guide given the volatile macro. Like what do you -- just how would you characterize the outlook today? It's oil is off the highs, PMIs are still expansionary, but the 10-year is north of 5%. Just wondering, are those customers, is it stable? Is it a little weakening? Is a little strengthening? Any way to characterize the health of that kind of customer base? Obviously, you guys have a lot of idiosyncratic drivers there, but just overall from a demand perspective. Padraig McDonnell: Yes. If you go -- if we kind of double-click on C&E, we grew low single digits on a tough compare. But looking at C&E on a regional basis, I talked a little bit about the Asia demand that we saw in refining and base chemical demand. China is benefiting from specialty chemical growth. APAC was flat, but in the downturn in specialty chemical and EMEA was down due to -- amid the geopolitical disruption and delayed CapEx. But the way to look at it, we're the beneficiary on the production side and a little bit of headwind on the refining side, but we haven't seen any change in that. So we're actually pretty -- really pleased with 7% growth in Q3 and above our mid-single-digit guide. And we feel for Q4, despite the high single-digit compares that we have, we expect growth to continue in the high single-digit range overall for CAM and chemical and energy will be an important part of that, too. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Kallum Titchmarsh with Morgan Stanley. Kallum Titchmarsh: I wanted to dig a little more into some of the pricing initiatives that seem to be tracking ahead of the initial road map. Would love just a little more color on where you're perhaps being more proactive with taking price across the business. And then how you're just thinking about that price contribution across the midterm, particularly if we're looking -- if we're working through that period of end markets themselves improving? Padraig McDonnell: Yes, I'll kick it off, and I'll hand it over to Adam on this one. I think strong pricing year-to-date. It's one of the amazing compounding factors of the Ignite Operating System that we've seen. We've already -- we've exceeded our initial full year guide of 100 bps plus for '26. And we expect pricing momentum to continue into the year-end. And if you look back on our quarters in FY '25, we're well north of 100 bps. That's 2x the pricing power over the previous year. Q1 was 200 bps of pricing. Q2 was 200 bps and Q3 was 200 bps. So we see that continuing to go forward. And of course, that's really important as we deal with inflationary pressure and Ignite is really helping on that response as well as we go forward. But anything to add, Adam? Adam Elinoff: The only piece I would add is that pricing isn't our only way that we're managing the inflationary pressures. We're also doing a lot around our supply chain management, looking at productivity across the business. And then the other piece is we're really focused on making sure that we're managing our inventory appropriately. So you'll see that our inventory went up a little bit, but that's just in response to some of the inflation that we're seeing and making sure that we have a resilient supply. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Luke Sergott with Barclays. Your next question comes from the line of Evie Koslosky with Goldman Sachs. Elizabeth Koslosky: So I wanted to touch on Agilent CrossLab. You've obviously had several quarters of really impressive instrument growth. So how should we think about the lag time between when the instrument is placed and then when you would actually expect to see the service contract booked related to that placement? Padraig McDonnell: Yes. So very pleased with our growth in Q3, modestly ahead of what we put out in our guide. We had service growing at mid-single digits and consumables growing at high single digits across all regions. But in terms of the lag time and what we see, maybe Angelica, you can add a little bit of color on this. Angelica Riemann: Yes. Thanks, Padraig, and thanks, Evie, for the question. We certainly see the increased demand for instruments translating to increased lab productivity. So it bodes well for ACG overall. As we look specifically at the instrument growth that's also new demand as well as tech refresh, there is a bit of a lag because the first 12 months are under warranty. So we really start to see the cumulative effect of the opportunities to turn that into recurring ACG revenue about 12 to 18 months. And that continues to roll, obviously, as more and more of those instruments are turning from warranty to fully functional and absolute connect rate opportunities to ACG as a whole. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Casey Woodring with JPMorgan. Casey Woodring: So diagnostics grew 6% this quarter. You noted it was a little bit below your expectations. Obviously, diagnostics growth of 11% last quarter, surprised to the upside. So maybe just walk through some of the dynamics you're seeing there. You mentioned underlying orders grew double digits. So just where are you seeing that strength in orders? And would be curious also to hear how the Omnis platform contributed as I know you called that out last quarter as a strong growth contributor also. Padraig McDonnell: Yes. So I'll start at a high level, and I'll bring Simon in. So 6% growth in the quarter. We saw robust double-digit growth in pathology, which gives us really confidence in the underlying health of the business. CDx grew mid-teens, and we have a really unique position in that business and genomics grew high single digits. And that's all underpinned by the expanded Dako Omnis family. But maybe you can provide more detail, Simon. Simon May: Yes. So I think overall for Q3, we continue to be really pleased with the momentum that we saw in pathology. We exited the quarter with a robust backlog in our core pathology business. We had very strong order entry in the third quarter, and we continue to see really strong adoption of the Omnis family. The installed base there that we're seeing is well on track, and we think that's a really good leading indicator as we go into fiscal year '27. At the same time, as Padraig mentioned, we also saw robust continuing growth in companion diagnostics with mid-teens. And I think we've just got really solid momentum there between the secular drivers that we see with modalities like ADCs, Agilent's capabilities, and the very strong installed base and underlying reputation that we've got. It was also nice to see return to growth in genomics there with high single-digit growth. So you put it all together, we were a shade light on revenue for the quarter, driven, I'd say, primarily by that backlog that we carry into Q4, but the order entry was really strong, and we're very confident about the fourth quarter and the underlying momentum in the business. Operator: This concludes the question-and-answer session. Mr. Tejas, I will turn the call back over to you. Tejas Savant: Thank you, everyone, for joining us. We look forward to speaking with you soon. Operator: This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect. 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Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-28

A Q2 Deep Dive: Product Momentum, China Recovery, and Operating Leverage Drive Results

StockStory
Life sciences tools company Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) announced better-than-expected revenue in Q2 CY2026, with sales up 8.1% year on year to $1.88 billion. Guidance for next quarter’s revenue was better than expected at $1.99 billion at the midpoint, 1% above analysts’ estimates. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.62 per share was 9% above analysts’ consensus estimates. Is now the time to buy A? Find out in our full research report (it’s free). Revenue: $1.88 billion vs analyst estimates of $1.84 billion (8.1% year-on-year growth, 1.9% beat) Adjusted EPS: $1.62 vs analyst estimates of $1.49 (9% beat) Revenue Guidance for Q3 CY2026 is $1.99 billion at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $1.97 billion Management raised its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $6.20 at the midpoint, a 2.4% increase Operating Margin: 23.6%, up from 20.7% in the same quarter last year Organic Revenue rose 7.3% year on year (beat) Market Capitalization: $43.8 billion Agilent’s second quarter results were well received, as the company delivered revenue and adjusted earnings above Wall Street’s expectations. Management credited the quarter’s outperformance to broad-based demand across its core end markets, with notable strength in pharma, advanced materials, and diagnostics. CEO Padraig McDonnell pointed to the company’s Ignite Operating System and strategic pricing initiatives as key levers that improved operational discipline and margin expansion. Robust growth in China and continued instrument replacement cycles also supported the results. Looking to the remainder of the year, Agilent’s updated outlook reflects confidence in ongoing end market improvement and recent product launches. Management highlighted momentum in China, increased investment in biotech and pharma, and early gains from reshoring trends as drivers for sustained growth. CFO Adam Elinoff noted that efficiencies from the Ignite program and continued pricing power are expected to support margin expansion, stating, “Our operating profit is growing faster than sales, giving us financial flexibility.” Management attributed the strong quarter to improved commercial execution, new product traction, and operational efficiencies, while also highlighting emerging multi-year growth drivers. Pharma and biotech demand: Agilent’s pharma division achieved 12% growth, with biotech growing double digits and small molecule growing…Read full document

Life sciences tools company Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) announced better-than-expected revenue in Q2 CY2026, with sales up 8.1% year on year to $1.88 billion. Guidance for next quarter’s revenue was better than expected at $1.99 billion at the midpoint, 1% above analysts’ estimates. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.62 per share was 9% above analysts’ consensus estimates. Is now the time to buy A? Find out in our full research report (it’s free). Revenue: $1.88 billion vs analyst estimates of $1.84 billion (8.1% year-on-year growth, 1.9% beat) Adjusted EPS: $1.62 vs analyst estimates of $1.49 (9% beat) Revenue Guidance for Q3 CY2026 is $1.99 billion at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $1.97 billion Management raised its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $6.20 at the midpoint, a 2.4% increase Operating Margin: 23.6%, up from 20.7% in the same quarter last year Organic Revenue rose 7.3% year on year (beat) Market Capitalization: $43.8 billion Agilent’s second quarter results were well received, as the company delivered revenue and adjusted earnings above Wall Street’s expectations. Management credited the quarter’s outperformance to broad-based demand across its core end markets, with notable strength in pharma, advanced materials, and diagnostics. CEO Padraig McDonnell pointed to the company’s Ignite Operating System and strategic pricing initiatives as key levers that improved operational discipline and margin expansion. Robust growth in China and continued instrument replacement cycles also supported the results. Looking to the remainder of the year, Agilent’s updated outlook reflects confidence in ongoing end market improvement and recent product launches. Management highlighted momentum in China, increased investment in biotech and pharma, and early gains from reshoring trends as drivers for sustained growth. CFO Adam Elinoff noted that efficiencies from the Ignite program and continued pricing power are expected to support margin expansion, stating, “Our operating profit is growing faster than sales, giving us financial flexibility.” Management attributed the strong quarter to improved commercial execution, new product traction, and operational efficiencies, while also highlighting emerging multi-year growth drivers. Pharma and biotech demand: Agilent’s pharma division achieved 12% growth, with biotech growing double digits and small molecule growing mid-single digits. The specialty CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization) business grew nearly 30%, supported by GLP-1 therapeutic demand and capacity expansion. Advanced materials and semiconductor momentum: The chemicals and advanced materials segment (CAM) grew 7%, ahead of expectations, with advanced materials delivering double-digit growth tied to investments in semiconductor manufacturing and AI infrastructure build-outs. Management noted that instrument demand typically follows major semiconductor fab investments by 18-24 months, creating a long runway for growth. China market acceleration: China delivered 9% revenue growth, surpassing expectations due to strong performance in pharma and food end markets, competitive wins, and new partnerships for AI-driven drug discovery workflows. Management emphasized that this momentum occurred without significant benefit from local stimulus. Product launch success: Recent launches, including the 9500 Triple Quad ICP-MS, new flagship GC systems, and Altura columns, saw stronger-than-anticipated adoption across regions. The 9500 system, designed for increased productivity in analytical labs, exceeded ramp-to-volume targets within its first months of shipment. Operational efficiency via Ignite: The Ignite Operating System drove improvements in strategic pricing, procurement, supply chain agility, and digital transformation. These initiatives contributed to a 210 basis point year-over-year expansion in non-GAAP operating margin (excluding tariff refunds), while enabling rapid response to shifting demand and material cost pressures. Management expects continued end market recovery, accelerated new product adoption, and operational leverage to shape the company's outlook. Sustained momentum in China and pharma: Management anticipates that ongoing recovery in China, combined with strong investment from multinational and local pharma companies, will underpin near-term growth. Increased biotech funding and a robust drug development pipeline are expected to support demand for both analytical instruments and CDMO services. Reshoring and semiconductor opportunity: Agilent is positioned to benefit from North American and global reshoring trends, particularly in pharma and semiconductor manufacturing. Orders from major pharma customers and a growing installed base in semiconductor supply chains are projected to ramp up, with management expecting meaningful revenue contributions in 2027 and beyond. Margin expansion through Ignite: The Ignite program is expected to continue delivering operating leverage via pricing discipline, supply chain optimization, and digital initiatives. Management noted that these structural improvements should help offset inflationary pressures and support double-digit non-GAAP earnings growth targets. Looking ahead, our analysts will closely watch (1) the pace of adoption for Agilent’s new instrument platforms and Altura columns across global markets, (2) the sustainability of China’s recovery and its impact on order growth, and (3) early revenue contributions from pharma reshoring and semiconductor supply chain investments. Continued operational improvements through Ignite and margin performance will also be key signposts. Agilent currently trades at $158.09, up from $155.20 just before the earnings. In the wake of this quarter, is it a buy or sell? Find out in our full research report (it’s free for active Edge members). ONE MORE THING: Top 5 Growth Stocks. The biggest stock winners almost always had one thing in common before they ran. Revenue growing like crazy. Meta. CrowdStrike. Broadcom. Our AI flagged all three. They returned 315%, 314%, and 455%, respectively. Find out which 5 stocks it’s flagging this month — FREE. Get Our Top 5 Growth Stocks for Free HERE. Stocks that have made our list include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,460% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Kadant (+214% between June 2020 and June 2025). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-26

Agilent Technologies (A) Q3 Earnings and Revenues Top Estimates

Zacks
Agilent Technologies (A) came out with quarterly earnings of $1.62 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.48 per share. This compares to earnings of $1.37 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +9.46%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this scientific instrument maker would post earnings of $1.4 per share when it actually produced earnings of $1.49, delivering a surprise of +6.43%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. Agilent, which belongs to the Zacks Medical - Products industry, posted revenues of $1.88 billion for the quarter ended July 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.08%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $1.74 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Agilent shares have added about 13.7% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 12.2%. While Agilent has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Agilent was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy…Read full document

Agilent Technologies (A) came out with quarterly earnings of $1.62 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.48 per share. This compares to earnings of $1.37 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +9.46%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this scientific instrument maker would post earnings of $1.4 per share when it actually produced earnings of $1.49, delivering a surprise of +6.43%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. Agilent, which belongs to the Zacks Medical - Products industry, posted revenues of $1.88 billion for the quarter ended July 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.08%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $1.74 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Agilent shares have added about 13.7% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 12.2%. While Agilent has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Agilent was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $1.71 on $1.97 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and $6.05 on $7.45 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Medical - Products is currently in the top 41% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. One other stock from the same industry, Medtronic (MDT), is yet to report results for the quarter ended July 2026. The results are expected to be released on September 1. This medical device company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $1.39 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +10.3%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. Medtronic's revenues are expected to be $9.47 billion, up 10.4% from the year-ago quarter. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Agilent Technologies, Inc. (A) : Free Stock Analysis Report Medtronic PLC (MDT) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-26

Agilent: Fiscal Q3 Earnings Snapshot

Associated Press

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Agilent Technologies Inc. (A) on Wednesday reported fiscal third-quarter earnings of $362 million. On a per-share basis, the Santa Clara, California-based company said it had net income of $1.28. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and asset impairment costs, came to $1.62 per share. The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.48 per share. The scientific instrument maker posted revenue of $1.88 billion in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.84 billion. For the current quarter ending in October, Agilent expects its per-share earnings to range from $1.71 to $1.74. The company said it expects revenue in the range of $1.98 billion to $2 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter. Agilent expects full-year earnings in the range of $6.18 to $6.21 per share, with revenue ranging from $7.49 billion to $7.51 billion. Agilent shares have risen 14% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has increased 12%. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $154.97, a climb of 31% in the last 12 months. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on A at https://www.zacks.com/ap/A

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-26

Agilent (A) Q3 Earnings: Taking a Look at Key Metrics Versus Estimates

Zacks

Agilent Technologies (A) reported $1.88 billion in revenue for the quarter ended July 2026, representing a year-over-year increase of 8.1%. EPS of $1.62 for the same period compares to $1.37 a year ago. The reported revenue represents a surprise of +2.08% over the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.84 billion. With the consensus EPS estimate being $1.48, the EPS surprise was +9.46%. While investors scrutinize revenue and earnings changes year-over-year and how they compare with Wall Street expectations to determine their next move, some key metrics always offer a more accurate picture of a company's financial health. As these metrics influence top- and bottom-line performance, comparing them to the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated helps investors project a stock's price performance more accurately. Here is how Agilent performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts: Net Revenue- Applied Markets: $346 million versus $336.29 million estimated by four analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +6.8% change. Net Revenue- Agilent Crosslab: $786 million versus the four-analyst average estimate of $791.36 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +5.7%. Net Revenue- Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets: $746 million compared to the $712.11 million average estimate based on four analysts. The reported number represents a change of +11.3% year over year. View all Key Company Metrics for Agilent here>>> Shares of Agilent have returned +10.1% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +3.7% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), indicating that it could perform in line with the broader market in the near term. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Agilent Technologies, Inc. (A) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-26

Agilent Technologies Q3 Adjusted Earnings, Revenue Rise; Sets Q4 Guidance

MT Newswires

Agilent Technologies (A) reported Wednesday Q3 adjusted earnings of $1.62 per diluted share, up from

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-26

Agilent Technologies Q3 Earnings Call Highlights

MarketBeat
Interested in Agilent Technologies, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Agilent exceeded expectations in Q3 fiscal 2026, reporting $1.88 billion in revenue, 7.3% core growth and adjusted EPS of $1.56, up 14% year over year. Operating margin expanded to 27.2% excluding tariff refunds. Growth was led by pharma, China and applied markets, including 12% pharma growth, more than 70% growth in GLP-1-related revenue and 9% growth in China. New instrument launches and replacement-cycle demand also supported a book-to-bill ratio above one for the 10th consecutive quarter. Agilent raised its fiscal 2026 outlook to $7.49 billion-$7.51 billion in revenue and adjusted EPS of $6.12-$6.15 excluding tariff refunds. Management also highlighted early pharmaceutical reshoring orders and a potential $1 billion reshoring opportunity through 2030. Alcoa’s Gallium Project Opens a New Door Beyond Aluminum Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) reported third-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue of $1.88 billion, with core revenue growth of 7.3%, exceeding the high end of its guidance range. The company said earnings per share were $1.56 excluding tariff-refund benefits, up 14% from a year earlier and $0.06 above the top of its guided range. Including a $20 million net benefit from tariff refunds, EPS was $1.62. CEO Padraig McDonnell said the results reflected improving conditions in key markets as well as gains from the company’s Ignite Operating System, which has focused on pricing, procurement, supply-chain agility, commercial execution and operational discipline. Operating margin was 27.2% excluding the tariff-refund benefit, up 210 basis points year over year. Including the refunds, operating margin was 28.3%. → What Rising Delivery Forecasts Say About Rivian's Stock Prospects Gold and Bitcoin Are Rebounding—2 ETFs Give Investors a Different Kind of Exposure Pharma revenue grew 12% during the quarter, led by double-digit biotech growth and mid-single-digit small-molecule growth. McDonnell said smaller and midsize biotechnology customers have begun increasing spending as funding conditions improve. Agilent’s Advanced Therapeutics division, which includes its NASD and BioVectra specialty CDMO operations, grew nearly 30%. The company also reported more than 70% growth in GLP-1-related revenue, with contributions from both its CDMO and analytical laboratory businesses. Excluding the CDMO busi…Read full document

Interested in Agilent Technologies, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Agilent exceeded expectations in Q3 fiscal 2026, reporting $1.88 billion in revenue, 7.3% core growth and adjusted EPS of $1.56, up 14% year over year. Operating margin expanded to 27.2% excluding tariff refunds. Growth was led by pharma, China and applied markets, including 12% pharma growth, more than 70% growth in GLP-1-related revenue and 9% growth in China. New instrument launches and replacement-cycle demand also supported a book-to-bill ratio above one for the 10th consecutive quarter. Agilent raised its fiscal 2026 outlook to $7.49 billion-$7.51 billion in revenue and adjusted EPS of $6.12-$6.15 excluding tariff refunds. Management also highlighted early pharmaceutical reshoring orders and a potential $1 billion reshoring opportunity through 2030. Alcoa’s Gallium Project Opens a New Door Beyond Aluminum Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) reported third-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue of $1.88 billion, with core revenue growth of 7.3%, exceeding the high end of its guidance range. The company said earnings per share were $1.56 excluding tariff-refund benefits, up 14% from a year earlier and $0.06 above the top of its guided range. Including a $20 million net benefit from tariff refunds, EPS was $1.62. CEO Padraig McDonnell said the results reflected improving conditions in key markets as well as gains from the company’s Ignite Operating System, which has focused on pricing, procurement, supply-chain agility, commercial execution and operational discipline. Operating margin was 27.2% excluding the tariff-refund benefit, up 210 basis points year over year. Including the refunds, operating margin was 28.3%. → What Rising Delivery Forecasts Say About Rivian's Stock Prospects Gold and Bitcoin Are Rebounding—2 ETFs Give Investors a Different Kind of Exposure Pharma revenue grew 12% during the quarter, led by double-digit biotech growth and mid-single-digit small-molecule growth. McDonnell said smaller and midsize biotechnology customers have begun increasing spending as funding conditions improve. Agilent’s Advanced Therapeutics division, which includes its NASD and BioVectra specialty CDMO operations, grew nearly 30%. The company also reported more than 70% growth in GLP-1-related revenue, with contributions from both its CDMO and analytical laboratory businesses. Excluding the CDMO business, Agilent said biopharma revenue increased 9%. → NVIDIA Reveals $21 Billion SpaceX Stake: Signal of Confidence or Circular Financing? 3 Contrarian Trades for a Market That Looks Too Hot Chemicals and advanced materials grew 7%, exceeding the company’s mid-single-digit expectation. Advanced materials posted double-digit growth, supported by semiconductor-related demand for spectroscopy and vacuum tools. Environmental and forensics revenue increased 5%, while PFAS-related revenue rose 20% despite a difficult comparison period. Diagnostics and clinical revenue grew 6%, slightly below Agilent’s expectations, but the company said underlying pathology orders rose at a double-digit rate. McDonnell said companion diagnostics grew in the mid-teens and genomics returned to high-single-digit growth. Simon May, president of the Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets Group, said pathology order entry was strong, with a robust backlog entering the fourth quarter and continued adoption of the Dako Omnis platform. → Berkshire Boosts Its Bet: This AI Hyperscaler Is Now a Top-3 Holding China was a major source of upside, with revenue increasing 9% against Agilent’s prior expectation for flat growth. Growth in the region was led by double-digit pharma and food performance, as well as strength in advanced materials. McDonnell said the company saw limited benefit from government stimulus during the quarter and attributed the results to commercial execution, local capabilities and competitive wins with CXOs, pharmaceutical customers and testing laboratories. Agilent said its instrument revenue grew at a high-single-digit rate, with low-double-digit liquid chromatography growth and low-single-digit gas chromatography growth. The company recorded a book-to-bill ratio above one for the 10th consecutive quarter, indicating orders met or exceeded revenue. McDonnell cited demand tied to liquid and gas chromatography replacement cycles, including customer upgrades to the Infinity III LC platform. He also highlighted the company’s newest product launches, including the 9500 Triple Quad ICP-MS, the 8890B and 8860B gas chromatography systems, and the Altura family of analytical columns. The 9500 ICP-MS began shipping in late July and has already surpassed Agilent’s ramp-to-volume target, according to McDonnell. Its order funnel exceeds $60 million. Orders for the new gas chromatography systems exceeded company expectations by more than two times during their first two months of availability. Agilent also said the number of new accounts adopting biopharma Altura columns increased 28% sequentially. The company completed its Biocare Medical acquisition in late June, and CFO Adam Elinoff said Biocare contributed $10 million in third-quarter revenue. The company expects about $23 million of Biocare revenue in the fourth quarter. Management said pharmaceutical reshoring is beginning to create instrument and service demand. Agilent booked its initial pharma reshoring orders during the third quarter, earlier than expected, including orders from five of the world’s 10 largest pharmaceutical companies. McDonnell reiterated the company’s estimate of a roughly $1 billion reshoring opportunity through 2030 and said Agilent expects to capture at least one-third of that opportunity. He said revenue from the trend is expected to begin building in fiscal 2027, though quarterly contributions may not be linear. Agilent also sees opportunity from semiconductor capacity investments and AI infrastructure spending. The company said semiconductor-related demand could support advanced materials growth over the medium term, with instrument demand typically emerging 18 to 24 months after fab construction. Management noted that semiconductor manufacturing also creates longer-term PFAS testing demand. Gross margin was 56.4% in the third quarter, or 54.9% excluding the net tariff-refund benefit. Elinoff said the ex-refund gross margin increased 180 basis points from the prior year due to incremental volume leverage and Ignite-related improvements. Operating cash flow was $519 million and free cash flow was $439 million, representing a 96% conversion of non-GAAP net income. Agilent repurchased $78 million of stock and paid $72 million in dividends during the period. Following a $600 million senior-notes offering completed alongside the Biocare transaction, the company ended the quarter with net leverage of one turn. For fiscal 2026, Agilent raised its outlook for reported revenue to $7.49 billion to $7.51 billion, representing 5.8% to 6.0% core growth. The revised midpoint is 65 basis points above its prior forecast. The company now expects full-year EPS of $6.18 to $6.21, including the third-quarter tariff-refund benefit. Excluding that benefit, it expects EPS of $6.12 to $6.15, representing 10% growth at the midpoint. Fourth-quarter reported revenue is projected at $1.98 billion to $2.0 billion. Fourth-quarter core revenue growth is expected to be approximately 5.2% to 6.2%. Fourth-quarter EPS is forecast at $1.71 to $1.74, representing growth of 8% to 9%. The fourth-quarter outlook does not include any potential future tariff refunds. Elinoff said Agilent continues to expect $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion in operating cash flow for the full year and about $450 million in capital expenditures. He added that the company expects Ignite efficiencies to help offset inflationary pressures related to the Middle East conflict and memory-chip demand. Agilent Technologies is a global provider of scientific instrumentation, consumables, software and services for laboratories across the life sciences, diagnostics and applied chemical markets. The company's product portfolio includes analytical instruments such as liquid and gas chromatographs, mass spectrometers, spectroscopy systems, and laboratory automation solutions, together with reagents, supplies and informatics tools that support measurement, testing and data analysis workflows. Agilent also offers instrument maintenance, qualification and laboratory services designed to help customers improve productivity and comply with regulatory requirements. Founded as a corporate spin-off from Hewlett‑Packard in 1999, Agilent has evolved through a combination of strategic restructuring and acquisitions to concentrate on life sciences, diagnostics and applied laboratories. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Agilent Technologies Q3 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-26

Agilent Reports Third-Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Financial Results

Business Wire
Delivers strong Q3 results and raises FY26 revenue growth, margin expansion, and non-GAAP EPS(4) guidance on continued operational momentum Third-quarter fiscal year 2026 Revenue of $1.88 billion for the third quarter ended July 31, 2026, representing growth of 8.1% reported and up 7.3% core(1) compared with the third quarter of fiscal year 2025. GAAP operating margin of 23.6%, expanded by 290 basis points year-over-year and 190 basis points sequentially. Non-GAAP operating margin(2) of 28.3% (including an approximately 110 basis point net benefit from tariff refunds), expanded by 320 basis points year-over-year and 190 basis points sequentially. GAAP net income of $362 million; earnings per share (EPS) of $1.28, an increase of 8% from the third quarter of fiscal year 2025. Non-GAAP net income(3) of $459 million (including a $17 million net benefit from tariff refunds); non-GAAP EPS(3) of $1.62 (including a $0.06 net benefit from tariff refunds), an increase of 18% from the third quarter of fiscal year 2025. Fiscal year 2026 improved outlook and fourth-quarter guidance Fiscal year 2026 revenue is now expected in the range of $7.49 billion to $7.51 billion, representing a range of up 7.8% to 8.1% reported and up 5.8% to 6.0% core,(1)(5) an increase of 65 basis points at the midpoint. Non-GAAP fiscal year 2026 operating margin expansion(2) at the midpoint of core revenue growth guidance is now expected to be over 130 basis points (including approximately 30 basis points in net benefit from tariff refunds in the third quarter). Non-GAAP fiscal year 2026 EPS(4) is now expected in the range of $6.18 to $6.21, an increase of 15 cents at the midpoint (including $0.06 net benefit from tariff refunds in the third quarter) versus our prior guide. Fourth-quarter 2026 revenue is expected in the range of $1.98 billion to $2.0 billion, growth of 6.4% to 7.4% reported and up 5.2% to 6.2% core(1)(5). Non-GAAP EPS(4) is expected in the range of $1.71 to $1.74 per share. This guidance does not include any future benefit from tariff refunds. SANTA CLARA, Calif., August 26, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today reported revenue of $1.88 billion for the third quarter ended July 31, 2026, representing growth of 8.1% reported and up 7.3% core(1) compared with the third quarter of fiscal year 2025. Third-quarter GAAP net income was $362 million, or $1.28…Read full document

Delivers strong Q3 results and raises FY26 revenue growth, margin expansion, and non-GAAP EPS(4) guidance on continued operational momentum Third-quarter fiscal year 2026 Revenue of $1.88 billion for the third quarter ended July 31, 2026, representing growth of 8.1% reported and up 7.3% core(1) compared with the third quarter of fiscal year 2025. GAAP operating margin of 23.6%, expanded by 290 basis points year-over-year and 190 basis points sequentially. Non-GAAP operating margin(2) of 28.3% (including an approximately 110 basis point net benefit from tariff refunds), expanded by 320 basis points year-over-year and 190 basis points sequentially. GAAP net income of $362 million; earnings per share (EPS) of $1.28, an increase of 8% from the third quarter of fiscal year 2025. Non-GAAP net income(3) of $459 million (including a $17 million net benefit from tariff refunds); non-GAAP EPS(3) of $1.62 (including a $0.06 net benefit from tariff refunds), an increase of 18% from the third quarter of fiscal year 2025. Fiscal year 2026 improved outlook and fourth-quarter guidance Fiscal year 2026 revenue is now expected in the range of $7.49 billion to $7.51 billion, representing a range of up 7.8% to 8.1% reported and up 5.8% to 6.0% core,(1)(5) an increase of 65 basis points at the midpoint. Non-GAAP fiscal year 2026 operating margin expansion(2) at the midpoint of core revenue growth guidance is now expected to be over 130 basis points (including approximately 30 basis points in net benefit from tariff refunds in the third quarter). Non-GAAP fiscal year 2026 EPS(4) is now expected in the range of $6.18 to $6.21, an increase of 15 cents at the midpoint (including $0.06 net benefit from tariff refunds in the third quarter) versus our prior guide. Fourth-quarter 2026 revenue is expected in the range of $1.98 billion to $2.0 billion, growth of 6.4% to 7.4% reported and up 5.2% to 6.2% core(1)(5). Non-GAAP EPS(4) is expected in the range of $1.71 to $1.74 per share. This guidance does not include any future benefit from tariff refunds. SANTA CLARA, Calif., August 26, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today reported revenue of $1.88 billion for the third quarter ended July 31, 2026, representing growth of 8.1% reported and up 7.3% core(1) compared with the third quarter of fiscal year 2025. Third-quarter GAAP net income was $362 million, or $1.28 per share. This compares with $336 million, or $1.18 per share, in the third quarter of fiscal year 2025. Non-GAAP net income(3) was $459 million (including a $17 million net benefit from tariff refunds), or $1.62 per share (including a $0.06 net benefit from tariff refunds), during the quarter, compared with $390 million, or $1.37 per share, during the year-ago quarter. "Agilent’s exceptional third-quarter performance reflects the sustained momentum created by our strategy, our execution discipline, and the compounding impact of the Ignite Operating System," said Agilent CEO Padraig McDonnell. "We are seeing improving end markets, stronger demand in key regions, and excellent customer response to our innovative product launches. All of this gives us confidence in our increased outlook and our ability to sustainably outperform our end markets." Financial Highlights Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets Group The Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets Group (LDG) reported third-quarter revenue of $746 million, growth of 11% reported and 10% core(1) year-over-year. LDG’s operating margin for the quarter was 23.5%. Agilent CrossLab Group The Agilent CrossLab Group (ACG) reported third-quarter revenue of $786 million, growth of 6% reported and 5% core(1) year-over-year. ACG’s operating margin for the quarter was 34.3%. Applied Markets Group The Applied Markets Group (AMG) reported third-quarter revenue of $346 million, growth of 7% reported and 7% core(1) year-over-year. AMG’s operating margin for the quarter was 24.9%. Conference Call Agilent’s management will present additional details regarding the company’s third-quarter 2026 financial results on a conference call with investors today at 1:30 p.m. PT. This event will be broadcast live online in listen-only mode. To listen to the webcast, select the "Q3 2026 Agilent Technologies, Inc. Earnings Conference Call" link on the Agilent Investor Relations website. The replay of the call will remain on the company website for 90 days. About Agilent Technologies Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: A) is a global leader in analytical and clinical laboratory technologies, delivering insights and innovation that help our customers bring great science to life. Agilent’s full range of solutions includes instruments, software, services, and expertise that provide trusted answers to our customers' most challenging questions. The company generated revenue of $6.95 billion in fiscal year 2025 and employs approximately 18,000 people worldwide. Information about Agilent is available at www.agilent.com. To receive the latest Agilent news, subscribe to the Agilent Newsroom. Follow Agilent on LinkedIn and Facebook. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is subject to the safe harbors created therein. The forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, information regarding Agilent’s growth prospects, business, financial results, revenue, non-GAAP earnings guidance for fiscal year and fourth-quarter 2026, and the effects of its operational transformation and customer and market-focused strategy. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause Agilent’s results to differ materially from management’s current expectations. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, unforeseen changes in the strength of Agilent’s customers’ businesses; unforeseen changes in the demand for current and new products, technologies, and services; unforeseen changes in the currency markets; customer purchasing decisions and timing; and the risk that Agilent is not able to realize the savings expected from integration and restructuring activities. In addition, other risks that Agilent faces in running its operations include the ability to execute successfully through business cycles; the ability to meet and achieve the benefits of its operational transformation, customer and market-focused strategy and cost-reduction goals and otherwise successfully adapt its cost structures to continuing changes in business conditions; ongoing competitive, pricing and gross-margin pressures; the risk that its cost-cutting initiatives will impair its ability to develop products and remain competitive and to operate effectively; the impact of geopolitical uncertainties and global economic conditions on its operations, its markets and its ability to conduct business; the ability to improve asset performance to adapt to changes in demand; the impact relating to or arising from changes to tariffs, import/export or trade policies; the ability of its supply chain to adapt to changes in demand; the ability to successfully introduce new products at the right time, price and mix; the ability of Agilent to successfully integrate recent acquisitions; the ability of Agilent to successfully comply with certain complex regulations; and other risks detailed in Agilent’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2026. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Agilent’s management and on currently available information. Agilent undertakes no responsibility to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement. (1) Core or organic constant currency revenue growth excludes the impact of currency and acquisitions and divestitures within the past 12 months. Core or organic constant currency revenue is a non-GAAP measure. Reconciliations between GAAP revenue and core or organic constant currency revenue for third quarter 2026 are set forth on page 7 of the attached tables along with additional information regarding the use of this non-GAAP measure. Core or organic constant currency revenue growth rate as projected for fourth quarter 2026 and full fiscal year 2026 excludes the impact of currency and acquisitions and divestitures within the past 12 months. Most of the excluded amounts pertain to events that have not yet occurred and are not currently possible to estimate with a reasonable degree of accuracy and could differ materially. Therefore, no reconciliation to GAAP amounts has been provided for the projection. (2) Non-GAAP operating margin excludes the impacts of restructuring and other related costs, intangibles amortization, transformation initiatives and acquisition and integration costs. A reconciliation between non-GAAP operating margin and GAAP operating margin is set forth on page 5 of the attached tables along with additional information regarding the use of this non-GAAP measure. Non-GAAP operating margin as projected for full fiscal year 2026 excludes primarily the impacts of restructuring and other related costs, intangible amortization, transformation initiatives and acquisition and integration costs. Most of these excluded amounts pertain to events that have not yet occurred and are not currently possible to estimate with a reasonable degree of accuracy and could differ materially. Therefore, no reconciliation to GAAP amounts has been provided. (3) Non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP EPS exclude the impacts of restructuring and other related costs, intangibles amortization, transformational initiatives, acquisition and integration costs and net (gain) loss on equity securities. Agilent also excludes any tax benefits or expenses that are not directly related to ongoing operations, and which are either isolated or are not expected to occur again with any regularity or predictability. A reconciliation between non-GAAP net income and GAAP net income and a reconciliation between non-GAAP EPS and GAAP EPS is set forth on page 4 of the attached tables along with additional information regarding the use of this non-GAAP measure. (4) Non-GAAP EPS as projected for fourth quarter 2026 and full fiscal year 2026 exclude primarily the estimated impacts of non-cash intangibles amortization, transformational initiatives, and acquisition and integration costs. Agilent also excludes any tax benefits or expenses that are not directly related to ongoing operations, and which are either isolated or are not expected to occur again with any regularity or predictability. Most of these excluded amounts pertain to events that have not yet occurred and are not currently possible to estimate with a reasonable degree of accuracy and could differ materially. Therefore, no reconciliation to GAAP amounts has been provided. Future amortization of intangibles is expected to be approximately $27 million per quarter. (5) Core or organic constant currency revenue growth outlook is based on forecasted currency exchange rates. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260826732268/en/ Contacts INVESTOR CONTACT: Tejas Savant+1 [email protected] Media Contact: Andréa [email protected]

TranscriptFY2026 Q32026-08-26

FY2026 Q3 earnings call transcript

Earnings source - 114 paragraphs
Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us and welcome to the Q3 2026 Agilent Technologies Inc earnings conference call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please raise your hand. If you have dialed into today's call, please press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. I will now hand the call over to Tejas Savant, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Tejas Savant

Thank you and welcome everyone to Agilent's conference call for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026. With me on the line are CEO, Padraig McDonnell, and CFO, Adam Elinoff. Joining for the Q&A will be Simon May, President of the Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets Group, Angelica Riemann, President of the Agilent CrossLab Group, and Mike Zhang, President of the Applied Markets Group. This presentation is being webcast live. The press release for our third quarter financial results, investor presentation, and information to supplement today's discussion, along with a recording of this webcast, are available on our website at investor.agilent.com. Today's comments will refer to non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP measures are supplemental and should not be considered a substitute for GAAP results. You'll find the most directly comparable GAAP financial metrics and reconciliations in the press release and on our website.

Tejas Savant

Unless otherwise noted, all references to increases or decreases in financial metrics are year-over-year, and references to revenue growth are on a core or organic constant currency basis. All references to profitability metrics are on a non-GAAP basis. Core or organic constant currency revenue growth is adjusted for the impact of currency exchange rates and any acquisitions and divestitures completed within the past 12 months. Guidance is based on forecasted exchange rates.

Tejas Savant

During this call, we will make forward-looking statements about the financial performance of the company. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and are only valid as of today. Agilent assumes no obligation to update them. Please refer to the company's recent SEC filings for a more detailed description of the risks and other factors that would cause our performance to differ from these forward-looking statements. I'd like to turn the call over to Padraig.

Padraig McDonnell

Thanks, Tejas, and welcome everyone. We delivered an excellent third quarter with strong performance in both the top and bottom lines. Our results clearly demonstrate the sustained momentum unlocked by our exceptional commercial and operational execution and the Ignite Operating System against the backdrop of steadily improving end markets. For the third quarter, Agilent reported $1.88 billion in revenue, growing 7.3% on a core basis and exceeding the high end of our guidance by 140 basis points. Our operating margin of 27.2%, excluding the net benefit from tariff refunds, was 80 basis points ahead of our implied guidance of 26.4%, providing further evidence of the strong operating leverage and execution discipline embedded in the business. Including the net benefit from tariff refunds of $20 million, our operating margin was 28.3%.

Padraig McDonnell

Our earnings per share of $1.56 on an ex refund basis were $0.06 above the high end of our guidance range of $1.48-$1.50, representing robust year-over-year growth of 14%. Including the net benefit from tariff refunds, our earnings per share were $1.62. Make no mistake, our extraordinary Q3 results are no accident, nor are they purely a function of improving end markets. Rather, they reflect the momentum created by our four key elements of our strategy. First, we continue to build on our unparalleled customer intimacy and trust. This differentiation is increasingly translating into share gains across key workflows and geographies. Second, that customer intimacy informs our innovation engine, resulting in distinct solutions that drive success for our customers and Agilent. Third, at the core of our success is a deep and increasingly capable bench of talent.

Padraig McDonnell

As our organizational capabilities continue to strengthen, we are improving speed, agility, and operational discipline, resulting in a step function improvement in execution. Finally, the compounding benefits of Ignite are now increasingly visible. I want to take a moment to reflect on our transformation journey. We announced our Ignite transformation in late 2024. Our earliest efforts emphasized strategic pricing, procurement, and tariff mitigation. Since then, Ignite has broadened and now underpins every aspect of how Agilent operates. This includes reinvigorating our innovation engine, strengthening our supply chain agility and operational discipline, and streamlining our structure and unlocking greater value through our integrated business model, which drives meaningful cross-selling of our LC and GC solutions across our pharma and applied customers. The enterprise capabilities we have developed with Ignite across commercial execution, innovation, manufacturing, supply chain, and digital have strengthened the business and created inherent resiliency throughout the organization.

Padraig McDonnell

All this positions us to deliver superior performance and navigate uncertainty in any environment. Before providing specifics on our third quarter results, I want to talk about Agilent's key growth drivers going forward. These include stronger commercial execution against improving conditions across our largest end markets, renewed momentum in China, innovation, the instrument replacement cycle, pharma and semiconductor reshoring, and Ignite's compounding impact on our results. Starting with our end markets, our largest end markets continue to improve, and our teams are converting that improvement into results through strong commercial execution, while a differentiated portfolio and best-in-class service drive share gain. Pharma grew 12% in the quarter, well ahead of our high single-digit expectations and growth rates reported by our peers.

Padraig McDonnell

As our large customers remain on a sound footing, we are starting to see stronger funding environment translating to improved spending from our small and mid-cap biotech customers, which is reflected in our excellent results. Our Advanced Therapeutics division, which includes NASD and BioVectra specialty CDMO operations, grew nearly 30%. ATD's performance reflect strong demand and disciplined execution as we expand our capacity and prepare for the next phase of our growth. Like pharma, we saw particularly strong demand across our Applied Markets portfolio. Chemicals and advanced materials grew 7%, ahead of our mid-single digit guide. Growth was led by an outstanding performance in advanced materials, despite a low double-digit year-over-year compare. Our leadership across the Applied Markets and the strength of our install base positions us well to benefit from semiconductor investment and a broader AI infrastructure build out over the near and medium term.

Padraig McDonnell

Diagnostics and clinical grew at the high end of the mid-single digit range, slightly below our high single-digit guide. However, underlying orders grew at a robust double-digit rate, giving us confidence in the durability of the business and its growth outlook. The improving end market picture was complemented by a notable step-up in China, which grew 9%, well ahead of our flat expectation. Our long-standing presence and deep customer relationships in the country, along with localized manufacturing, go-to-market capabilities, and exposure to attractive end markets underpinned our exceptional performance in the quarter. Importantly, we delivered this performance despite minimal China stimulus benefit and see the momentum continuing into year-end. The upside was driven by strong execution with commercial accounts, especially within the pharma and food end markets. We saw competitive wins in China that highlight the strength of our differentiated portfolio and services offering.

Padraig McDonnell

Those wins include two leading CXOs and an enterprise service contract win with a marquee local pharma customer. In Applied, a leading commercial testing lab chose us over the competition to serve their increasing PFAS testing needs. As we look ahead, we are well positioned to benefit from three emerging growth drivers in the region. First, biotech innovation in China, combined with investment from global pharma companies, is creating meaningful demand for our CXO customers. Our customer support and service infrastructure continues to differentiate Agilent, and our unparalleled customer intimacy positions us as a trusted strategic partner for these CXOs. Second, we are seeing an inflection in contract testing laboratory volumes, particularly testing activity related to food safety and materials exports. Demand for our differentiated PFAS testing solutions is strong.

Padraig McDonnell

Our complete end-to-end workflows from sample preparation and analytical instrumentation through application and regulatory expertise is enabling us to win against the competition. Finally, the AI capital investment build-out in China plays directly into our strengths in GC-MS, and spectroscopy. The recently launched 9500 Triple Quad ICP-MS is off to a strong start in the region, with semiconductor supply chain customers already contributing to a robust order funnel. Last quarter, we announced the launch of our China Innovation Center and are now in the early phase of lab automation software co-development with a leading commercial testing customer ahead of building a fully automated lab. We are also partnering with a cutting-edge local biotech company that is leveraging AI to automate drug discovery workflows on our instrument platforms.

Padraig McDonnell

These partnerships are generating positive momentum for us in the region while strengthening our R&D capabilities in AI and automation to better support our customers. Even as instruments such as the Infinity III LC continue to drive our performance, we're looking forward to contributions from the next wave of innovations that will strengthen our install base and support recurring consumables and service pull-through. Our recent product launches at the ASMS conference in June are all off to a strong start. The 9500 ICP-MS, the flagship GC systems, and our Altura column family are tracking ahead of plan simultaneously. This shows our innovation engine working across the portfolio, reducing our reliance on any single star product. We are seeing strong demand across all regions for the 9500 and already have exceeded our ramp to volume target despite beginning shipments in late July. The funnel now exceeds $60 million.

Padraig McDonnell

The 9500's value proposition, increased productivity, lower cost of ownership, and ease of use is resonating strongly while supporting customer technology migration from single quad to triple quad systems. We've also received excellent customer feedback on our new 8890B and 8860B flagship GCs. Customers are excited about the productivity and GC Assist intelligence features on the systems, which started to ship in July. Orders over the first 2 months exceeded expectations by more than 2x, with strong demand across all regions. Turning to our consumables portfolio, we further expanded the Altura family at ASMS by launching columns for analytical workflows in protein peptide therapeutics, large oligonucleotides, gene therapy, and vaccines. We have seen fantastic customer response to date since shipments began last month. The increasing set of high-profile applications that our growing Altura portfolio is addressing has resulted in land and expand dynamic in customer accounts.

Padraig McDonnell

We saw 28% quarter-over-quarter growth in the number of new accounts adopting biopharma Altura columns. In multiple biopharma accounts, we have seen the initial adoption of one Altura column for a single application translate into the customer purchasing multiple Altura column chemistries for different applications. We're not done yet. Expect continued expansion of the Altura family for new use cases in the quarters ahead. In pathology, expansion of the Dako Omnis family continues to bring laboratory automation to an entirely new customer set. Moreover, the recent close of the Biocare transaction in late June builds on that momentum by expanding our clinically focused antibody menu and complementing our pathology offering. The business is off to a solid start, and the integration is progressing well. Turning to spectroscopy, we continue to build momentum with the Raman Insight series.

Padraig McDonnell

Following the initial $9 million contract win with the TSA we mentioned earlier this year, we've seen use cases expand from airport security checkpoints at FIFA World Cup host cities to other cities in the U.S. Both the new Insight BRT and Insight300M aviation security products have achieved major milestones this quarter and are now certified to variants of the latest U.S. and European detection standards respectively. Both systems contain truly first-of-its-kind technology to enhance safety and streamline operations at security checkpoints. We continue to be optimistic that the opportunity could expand through further RFPs in the U.S. and adoption in Europe and beyond. Turning to the instrument performance in Q3, we had another very strong quarter of instrument revenue, delivering high single-digit growth against a high single-digit comparison as we continue to reap the dual benefit of our LC and GC replacement cycles.

Padraig McDonnell

LC revenue grew low double digits despite a mid-teens comparison. This is a truly outstanding result, reflecting strong customer response to the Infinity III LC and the value customers are seeing in upgrading fleets to improve productivity, reliability, and workflow efficiency. On the GC side, we saw low single-digit growth, a strong result considering the high single-digit year-over-year compare. Q3 book-to-bill came in above one, marking the 10th consecutive quarter where instrument orders met or grew faster than revenue. Our healthy book-to-bill supports near-term demand, and our LC and GC replacement cycles come with an ample runway ahead. The excellent momentum we are seeing across the portfolio is also reflected in our latest Agilent customer experience survey, with more than 85% of our customers rated their experience as highly favorable in relations to purchasing decisions, onboarding, solution use, and support.

Padraig McDonnell

I am especially delighted that we saw our highest score ever for onboarding and support, with a satisfaction rate at or above 95%. Beyond the instrument replacement cycle, early gains from reshoring dynamics are now beginning to materialize, underpinning a sustainable multiyear instrument growth opportunity ahead of us. In pharma, we booked our initial reshoring orders in Q3 ahead of our expectations, and the funnel continues to build. The steady increase in number of active construction sites following the 17 pharmaceutical manufacture agreements announced under the Trump administration's MFN program reinforces our top-down view of the pharma reshoring opportunity we laid out last year. Moreover, our commercial teams are now engaging in meaningful dialogue with most of these customers, three-quarters of whom happen to be part of our strategic customer program.

Padraig McDonnell

In fact, we have secured reshoring orders from five of the top 10 pharma companies in the world in the third quarter alone. We continue to expect more meaningful order benefit from pharma reshoring around year-end, with revenue contributions building in fiscal 2027 and beyond. Further, the reshoring opportunity for Agilent extends beyond pharma to semiconductor, a key differentiator for us compared to our peers. Semiconductor customers continue to invest in regional supply chain capacity, which in combination with AI CapEx build-out, should underpin the robust growth in our advanced materials end market over the medium term. The Ignite Operating System is powering our commercial and operations organization, as well as accelerating innovation momentum. The scope and impact of Ignite once again clearly visible in the third quarter. Our strategic pricing initiatives delivered approximately 200 basis points in Q3.

Padraig McDonnell

We have now surpassed our initial full-year target of more than 100 basis points. While strategic pricing supported the top line, our operating profit is growing faster than sales. Operating margin in the quarter, excluding the tariff refund net benefit of approximately 110 basis points, expanded by over 210 basis points year over year. We are generating more returns on every incremental revenue dollar, giving us financial flexibility. This traces back to Ignite, the engine at the heart of our company-wide operating system. Another shining example of Ignite in action is our push for manufacturing excellence. There, we are being front-footed in building resilience across our business and setting up the organization to deliver durable long-term growth while nimbly navigating shifts in end markets, trade, and geopolitical dynamics. Our internally developed AI-enabled supply chain control tower is improving prediction and enabling adaptive calibration of supply and demand plans.

Padraig McDonnell

During the quarter, our order to shipment conversion rate improved meaningfully year-over-year, reinforcing the agility we have built in operations. Enhanced shipment prediction and greater risk visibility ensure ability to rapidly flex supply across our instruments and consumables portfolio in lockstep with customer demand. Rapid factory turnaround is also helping us respond to demand faster, with the customer request to delivery date performance reaching a record 95%. As part of our global operations transformation, we have moved to a more agile, regionally led distributed manufacturing model. This structure enabled our regional hubs in Asia to respond quickly during the quarter to strong demand conditions. Importantly, we did so without adding headcount and despite having to navigate rising material costs and supply chain headwinds. As Ignite strengthens our operations, we are applying the same disciplined approach to building our next generation digital and AI capabilities.

Padraig McDonnell

Our digital initiative continues to make it easier for customers to do business with Agilent while lowering our cost per transaction. Customers' overall experience on agilent.com continues to track ahead of our targets, with new online orders growing in the low teens in Q3. Starting last quarter, we have moved our enterprise AI strategy into execution. We mobilized a partnership with OpenAI and BCGx, advanced solutions focused on the commercial customer journey, and continued building the Agilent AI Center of Excellence to help us move from individual initiatives to repeatable enterprise delivery. While AI capability is advancing quickly and becoming broadly available, our differentiation lies in how we apply it. Combining AI with Agilent's proprietary data, scientific knowledge, and customer understanding enables us to redesign workflows, improving how decisions are made and how work gets done.

Padraig McDonnell

This is how we move beyond isolated productivity gains to create durable value that is difficult to replicate. We are leveraging AI to transform software development to create highly integrated enterprise solutions that deliver a seamless and superior customer experience. Our use of AI is not simply about helping the developers code faster, but will shorten the software development life cycle from planning and design through development, testing, and deployment. Our targeted approach will accelerate the pace of which we bring differentiated software releases to market. In parallel, we are focused on delivering near-term value in priority workflows, including the commercial customer journey and our manufacturing operations. We continue to scale our AI investments with discipline based on our demonstrated customer outcome, adoption, and business value.

Padraig McDonnell

Before I turn to sharing financial details of our Q3 results, I want to highlight the marked progress we have made in the area that is important to our customers, employees, and shareholders. Sustainability. This quarter, we continued to programmatically embed sustainability in everything we do, facility design, engineering projects, and product design, and are making excellent progress to our committed pledges. Through a formal structure, dedicated leadership within our global operations function, and a thoughtful roadmap, we are seeing the impact of our efforts. Agilent was named to Time's World's Most Sustainable Companies and Newsweek's World's Greenest Companies in 2026. Further, our latest MSCI ESG assessment resulted in an upgrade from AA to AAA. We also joined the United Nations Global Compact and received My Green Lab's 2025 Sustainable Lab Product Innovation Award for our flagship Infinity III LC.

Padraig McDonnell

These achievements reflect the collective efforts of the teams across Agilent to strengthen our sustainability programs. I am delighted to see that progress recognized externally. Now, let me share some additional details on our Q3 results, starting with our end markets. As I mentioned earlier, pharma grew 12% this quarter. Within pharma, biotech grew double digits and small molecule grew mid-single digits. Our GLP-1 momentum continues, delivering more than 70% year-over-year growth in the quarter, with a robust contribution from both our CDMO and analytical lab businesses. CAM grew 7% and environmental and forensics delivered 5% growth, both exceeding our expectations. Importantly, PFAS grew 20% despite a low double-digit compare. Diagnostics and clinical grew 6%, just shy of our expectations. Robust double-digit order growth in pathology in the quarter gives us confidence in the underlying demand and health of this business.

Padraig McDonnell

Food was roughly flat in the quarter, ahead of our expectations for a low single-digit decline. Academic and government, our smallest end market, declined 3%, modestly below our expectations. However, on an ex-China basis, the end market was up low single digits. Most importantly, our customer-centric approach is working, and we continue to win against the competition in all major geographies. Turning to updated guidance, building on an excellent third quarter, and with the outlook for our end markets broadly continuing to improve, we now expect core growth of 5.8%-6% for the full year. At the midpoint, this represents an increase of 65 basis points versus our prior guide. Our full-year growth is now poised to approach the midpoint of our long-range plan.

Padraig McDonnell

Moreover, on a two-year stack basis, our revised guide implies that core growth has now accelerated from flat in 2025 to almost 11%, an exceptional outcome separating us from our peers. Importantly, our robust top-line performance is translating into excellent operating leverage. We are increasing our EPS expectations to a range of $6.18-$6.21 for the full year, 15 cents higher than our prior forecast at the midpoint. Excluding the net benefit of tariff refunds of approximately $0.06 in the third quarter, earnings per share of $6.12-$6.15 are now expected to grow at 10% at the midpoint for the full year, in line with a long-range plan of double-digit EPS growth. With that, let me hand over to Adam, who will provide additional details on the quarter and our financial outlook for the remainder of the year.

Adam Elinoff

Thanks, Padraig, and good afternoon, everyone. In my comments today, I will provide additional details on revenue in the quarter, as well as walk through the income statement and cover other key financial metrics. I will then cover our updated full year and fourth quarter guidance. Starting with Q3, revenue was $1.88 billion. On a core or organic constant currency basis, we posted growth of 7.3%, while reported growth was 8.1%. Currency had a favorable impact of 0.2%, a lower tailwind than our May guidance. LDG revenue grew 10% on a core basis, nicely ahead of expectations. Low double-digit growth in LC and nearly 30% growth in our specialty CDMO Advanced Therapeutics division drove performance. We expect flattish growth in ATD in the fourth quarter when the segment laps a tough year-over-year compare of over 40%.

Adam Elinoff

As you might recall, we achieved mechanical completion of our Train C build-out last quarter, positioning us well to begin revenue generation at the new facility next spring. Our cancer diagnostics business was driven by strong growth in companion diagnostics and genomics. Biocare delivered $10 million in Q3 following close of the transaction. We are excited by the solid start and look forward to the impact of Biocare's clinically focused antibody menu on our pathology business. AMG grew 7% in the quarter on a core basis, well ahead of our low double-digit expectations. Growth was led by high single-digit increase in spectroscopy in addition to double-digit performance in vacuum. Like last quarter, those businesses continue to see strong demand for their market-leading tools to support semiconductor production. ACG grew north of 5% in the quarter on a core basis, modestly ahead of our forecast, driven by strong performance in consumables.

Adam Elinoff

Looking ahead, our ongoing installed base expansion will fuel consumables uptake in addition to service revenue growth following the initial warranty period. On a geographic basis, the biggest driver of upside in the quarter was China, where we grew 9%, well ahead of our flat expectations, driven by double-digit growth in pharma and food. Asia ex China revenue also grew 9%, with robust double-digit growth in pharma and CAM. Americas grew 10%. The growth was broad-based with low to mid-teens performance in pharma, diagnostics and clinical, and environmental and forensics. Europe grew low single digits on a tough year-over-year compare with mid-single digit growth in diagnostics and clinical, CAM, and academic and government. Q3 gross margins were 56.4%. Excluding an approximately 160 basis point net benefit from tariff refunds, gross margins were 54.9%.

Adam Elinoff

This represents a healthy 180 basis point improvement year-over-year from strong leverage on incremental volumes and Ignite momentum. Operating margin was 28.3% in the quarter. Excluding an approximately 110 basis point net benefit from tariff refunds, operating margin was 27.2%, an increase of 210 basis points year-over-year, driven by our healthy gross margin performance and compounding Ignite efficiencies. Moving below the line, we had $5 million of other income, while our tax rate of 14.5% was as expected. Finally, we had 283 million diluted shares outstanding in the quarter, in line with expectations. Putting it all together, Q3 earnings per share were $1.62, which includes a $0.06 net benefit from tariff refunds. Excluding this impact, earnings per share of $1.56 grew 14% year-over-year, a reflection of our superior execution and Ignite-led structural improvement in our operations. Now let me turn to the cash flow and balance sheet.

Adam Elinoff

Operating cash flow in the quarter was $519 million, and we invested $80 million in capital expenditures. The strong operating cash flow performance reflects operational excellence and improved collections, as well as the net benefit of tariff refunds. Our free cash flow of $439 million represents a non-GAAP net income conversion ratio of 96%. We purchased $78 million in shares and paid $72 million in dividends in Q3. Finally, in conjunction with the Biocare acquisition, we successfully completed our $600 million senior notes offering in late June. We ended the quarter with a net leverage ratio of one turn, maintaining our strong balance sheet. Now let me share some additional details on the updated outlook for the year and the guidance for the fourth quarter.

Adam Elinoff

Based on the strong performance, we now expect fiscal year 2026 revenue to be in the range of $7.49 billion-$7.51 billion on a reported basis. This range represents growth of 5.8%-6% on a core or organic constant currency basis, an increase of 65 basis points at the midpoint versus the prior guide. Currency is now expected to be a 1.6% tailwind during the year. Turning to our end markets, business segment, and geographic growth assumptions. Based on strong results year to date and our outlook for the fourth quarter, we are raising our full year expectations for CAM from mid to high to high single digit growth. Our growth assumptions across the rest of our end markets remain unchanged.

Adam Elinoff

Turning to our segments, we now expect mid to high single digit growth for both AMG and LDG versus our prior mid-single digit forecast to reflect our strong year-to-date performance and continuing momentum into year end. We continue to expect mid-single digit growth for ACG. Regionally, we are increasing our expectations for China and Asia ex China. We now expect China to grow at mid-single digits, while Asia ex China is expected to grow double digits. In Europe, we now expect low double digit growth for the full year, while our growth assumption for the Americas remains unchanged at mid to high single digit. Moving down the P&L, on an ex tariff refund basis, we are increasing our full year operating margin expansion target to over 100 basis points at the midpoint of our revenue guidance versus our prior forecast of 85 basis points.

Adam Elinoff

Including the tariff refunds we received in the third quarter, this represents operating margin expansion of over 130 basis points. Our expected tax rate is unchanged at 14.5%. We continue to expect $31 million in other income and 283 million diluted shares outstanding for the year. On an ex tariff refund basis, fiscal year 2026 earnings per share are now expected to be between $6.12 and $6.15, an increase of $0.09 at the midpoint, representing robust earnings growth of 10%. Including the net benefit of refunds received in Q3, earnings per share are expected to be between $6.18 and $6.21, representing growth of 11%. For your modeling, let me share some additional expectations we have incorporated into our guidance for the year.

Adam Elinoff

While the Middle East conflict and demand for memory chips continue to pressure our costs, we are confident that the Ignite Operating System will deliver meaningful efficiencies and help absorb those inflationary impacts within our Q4 outlook. There is no change to our operating cash flow range of $1.6 billion-$1.7 billion. We expect to invest approximately $450 million in capital expenditures. The updated full year guidance implies that reported revenue in the fourth quarter will be in the range of $1.98 billion-$2 billion. This represents growth of roughly 5.2%-6.2% on a core or organic constant currency basis, while currency is expected to be a ten basis point headwind. It is important to note that this growth represents continued structural acceleration on a two-year stack basis, excluding ATD, which we expect will be flattish this quarter, as I stated earlier.

Adam Elinoff

Our fourth quarter guide also includes revenue contribution of approximately $23 million from Biocare. Together, EPS is expected to be in the range of $1.71-$1.74, representing growth of 8%-9%, assuming 283 million diluted shares outstanding. Finally, I wanted to be clear that our fourth quarter guide does not include any future benefit from potential tariff refunds. With that, I'll turn the call over to Padraig for closing comments.

Padraig McDonnell

Thanks, Adam. Our third quarter performance once again demonstrates the accelerating momentum of the business and the quality of Agilent's execution. We delivered excellent top and bottom line results while continuing to invest in capabilities that will drive profitable above market growth in years ahead. Our value proposition remains highly differentiated. A broad and resilient portfolio across attractive end markets and geographies, leadership in essential analytic and clinical workflows, an innovation engine grounded in customer intimacy, commercial and operations excellence, and best in class service, all underpinned by the Ignite Operating System, which is raising performance across every facet of Agilent. Together, these trends give us multiple avenues to succeed and position Agilent to sustainably outperform the competition. We are looking forward to finishing the year on a strong note and entering 2027 from a position of strength.

Padraig McDonnell

Before we close, I want to thank our customers for the trust and express my gratitude to the Agilent team. Their commitment, customer focus, and our exceptional execution made these results possible. With that, I'll turn back to Tejas.

Tejas Savant

Thanks, Padraig. Operator, can you please share the instructions for the Q&A?

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please raise your hand now. If you have dialed into today's call, please press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Jack Meehan with Operon. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Jack Meehan

Thank you. Good afternoon, guys.

Padraig McDonnell

Good afternoon.

Jack Meehan

Wanted to focus on the specialty CDMO business. So strong growth, nearly 30% in the quarter. That was ahead of what I was expecting. Can you talk about the visibility on this business into 2027? Obviously, the GLP-1 demand has been very strong, but I get a lot of questions about some of your top customers in NASD as well. Was just wondering if you would talk about the outlook for this business.

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah, thanks, Jack. I will pass it over to Adam here in a second. But first of all, really pleased with performance of nearly 30% growth, which was really within our expectations and moving along nicely. But Adam, you want to add some detail on that?

Adam Elinoff

Sure. Thanks, Padraig. Thanks, Jack. Effectively, as you think about the CDMO business over the longer term, we've talked about a mid-teens growth over the LRP period, and we still feel very confident about that. The second piece is we have Train C coming online, and that's in the spring. As you think about that'll start generating revenue in that period. Then over the next six to eight quarters, that's when we expect it to ramp up to full capacity. The other piece, and you asked about our confidence and how we're thinking about the business, our order book is really building very nicely, and we have the majority of our capacity available in Train C spoken for already.

Adam Elinoff

Just as the last piece, as you're thinking about the business, just recognize as we start to bring Train C online, our capacity in the base CDMO business will start to hit full capacity. That incremental Train C will allow us to grow again. So feel very confident going forward.

Jack Meehan

Excellent. Okay. Just to stick on this topic, was wondering if you could talk about margin dynamics related to the specialty CDMO business. Was just trying to figure out, obviously 27.2%, strip out the tariff dynamics in the quarter, it was a very healthy result. Was wondering how much the CDMO business contributed to that, because I know it can be healthy margins and what's contemplated in terms of the phasing into 4Q. Thanks.

Adam Elinoff

Yeah, so in general terms, we don't break out the CDMO business. But in general terms, the way we think about it is it should be roughly aligned to our broader business when it's running at full capacity. Then if you think about next year, especially as we're bringing on Train C, we'll be hiring staff in advance, and we'll start depreciating the facility in the early part of the year and then starting to get revenue later part of the year. That said, any negative margin impact we've committed to mitigating through our Ignite Operating System.

Jack Meehan

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Vijay Kumar with Evercore. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Vijay Kumar

Hi, guys. Thank you for taking my question and congratulations on a nice print here. Maybe Padraig, my first one was on your comment on reshoring was interesting. You noted five customers, you received orders, and this is ahead of expectations, right? Is there any way to quantify what the order size is? Any change in your $1 billion expectations for the industry, and how to think about contribution for fiscal 2027?

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah, so I think we sized the opportunity at about $1 billion through 2030, and we expect to at least win one third of that. We feel really good about that, Vijay. Having visited a number of these sites over the last few months, it's been great to see the momentum and how we're moving with setting up, getting ready to put its systems in, et cetera. So one of the things that's probably good to say is the broader benefit versus peers. We include LC services and GC in these companies where we've seen 45 onshoring sites that have been designated. We see that we have about 15,000 instruments installed globally, so we have a large install base that reflects future going forward on the reshoring sites. It's going to take a bit of time.

Padraig McDonnell

We already have some orders coming in, which is great to see, and these are in forward stocking locations ready to go into sites. Of course, our teams are helping plan how the labs are set up, et cetera, on it. So I think we feel very good about it. We're going to see the revenue start to come in 2027. It's going to be not linear. I think you're going to see differences in different quarters as we go forward, but I think it's going to be really important. One of the things that's been very compelling to us is that out of the first reshoring orders that we've done, it includes five out of the top 10 global pharma companies in Q3 alone. What you will see going forward is that we expect that to continue.

Padraig McDonnell

One of the things that we invested in in a company a number of years ago, which is really paying dividends, is our strategic customer program. 75% of the MFN signatories are in that strategic customer program. So that's what means we have a global read on what's happening. So that's how we read it, so we feel really good about it.

Vijay Kumar

That's helpful. Then maybe one more follow-up, Padraig. When you think about fiscal 2027, we're exiting Q4, 6% organic, high level, what gets better? What gets worse? When you think about GLP-1s, PFAS, new products, China, et cetera, any high level comments on what gets better, worse is worse?

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah, I knew you had to ask, Vijay, the question, but I think we'll wait till the next quarter to talk about 2027 in detail. But what I can say is that we're going in Q4 with a lot of momentum. You see the progress in China was very positive, a step up. We see that continuing. Mightn't be linear through next year, but we see that continuing. So we're really feeling good about the momentum in Q3 going into Q4.

Vijay Kumar

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Tycho Peterson with Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Tycho Peterson

Hey, guys. Maybe just starting with the CDMO guide here. You are guiding 12%, had been mid-teens. How much of what you saw in this quarter was kind of a timing issue? I appreciate, Adam, the comments on Train C. I am just curious if you can quantify anything around bookings or how much of the expected growth is being driven by existing programs versus new demand. I know you have talked about multiple high growth indications in the pipeline for Train C as we think about that next year.

Adam Elinoff

Yeah, why don't I start? I will just give you some more color on the 2026 guide. Once again, 30% growth we saw in the quarter, and then year to date, we are at about 16% growth. Where we are calling for flattish, that is really driven by the timing of some regulatory related submissions of our customers, and so those are expected to have responses right toward the end of the quarter.

Adam Elinoff

Depending on where those come out, that is how the full year guide will play out. Specifically for 2027, I will pass over to Simon in a moment just to talk a little bit more about the longer term view of the business. Like I said, we have more than a majority of the capacity filled with bookings from a variety of different customers. Importantly, though these are some larger scale programs, and we are excited about where they will go and the opportunity for the future. With that, I will pass it over to Simon.

Simon May

Yeah, just a couple of quick things to add. I'd say in terms of the FY 2027 ramp, we've continued to make good progress with the Endeavor mechanical completion and marching towards the next spring go live. We're focused there initially on a high-volume commercialization process implementation in Train C. Of the available capacity that we're going to have in FY 2027, I'd say 75% of that is currently spoken for with POs. We've also had a couple of other notable process validations for larger indications in the last quarter alone. I think this just really reinforces the medium long-term view that we've got on this business and how well-positioned siRNA is as a modality with these larger indications. The pipeline's very strong. The demand signals that we're seeing from our customers are very strong, and I think the timing of Train C is really well timed.

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah, that's great, Simon. Just one thing to remind everybody as well, Q4 2026, we expect flat growth, but it's over a very challenging 40% year-over-year comparison.

Tycho Peterson

Okay, that's helpful. Then follow-up just on margins. I understand you don't want to talk a lot about 2027 at this point, but you'll do over 130 basis points this year. You've made a lot of progress in Ignite Operating System. As we think about next year, you don't have the tariff or refund impact. You've been pretty clear on the pricing strategy. I guess any color or comments you're willing to say on margins for next year? I mean, the Street's at 80 basis points. It feels like it could do north of 100. How do you think about just the margin trajectory over the next year?

Adam Elinoff

Yeah. I'll take this one. Thanks, Tycho, for the question. We're not going to be guiding for 2027, as you would expect. I would say that we do feel very good about the momentum of the business, but also about our Ignite Operating System program, which we've talked about. That gives us confidence in the long-range plan we have in place now. As we work through the numbers here in preparation for our Q4 call, we're in a good position, and I feel very good about both 2027 and beyond.

Tycho Peterson

Okay, thanks.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Ryskin with Bank of America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Michael Ryskin

Great. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe I'll start on China. You kind of called out the strength there, and you bumped the guide on that. That's on China ACG being a little bit weaker. As you called out, I think the stimulus was not having a big impact yet. I would just like to unpack that a little bit more. I think you called out pharma and food. Maybe go into a little more detail on where you saw that, if that's more local customers, multinationals, biotech or more on the CDMO side. I just want to get a little better sense of how China turned around so much this quarter. I got a follow-up. Thanks.

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah, and just recently back as well, which was great to be there opening our China Innovation Center and seeing the pace of the business there was great, and also meeting the teams and customers. I think if you look at our pharma, strong double-digit growth. You see, first of all, our GLP-1 and peptide testing. We see continued adoption of innovative therapies and increased investment from biotech. Biotech grew double digits, and that was due to the influx of investment into China by pharma. Everybody can see that from the large pharma investments. Also, I would say you have R&D coming in, but also you have homegrown innovative drugs that are really taking shape now. The momentum is really driven by that new R&D and new modalities.

Padraig McDonnell

One thing that we were very pleased about is our small molecule grew mid-teens, and that's growing investment in the R&D pipeline for novel first-in-class small molecule drugs. That, of course, benefits us because we're downstream with our tools on that side. You can see that China is becoming more a continuing important region for drug development. Just moving along, if you look along the businesses, our CAM business grew high single digits, and that's over a really tough compare of low double digits year-over-year. You see that driven by really a number of things. First of all, the AI infrastructure expansion and our advanced materials business in China grew high teens. Although we saw a little bit softer in C&E due to macroeconomic pressures, we're also seeing our spectroscopy and vacuum products growing double digits. Again, food, a really bright spot for us.

Padraig McDonnell

Robust mid-teens growth in food. Again, that's really great across the testing volumes that we're seeing. I think growth is driven by broad-based government contract labs, academia and research lab investments. What we're seeing is a number of competitive wins in the quarter because of the strength of our portfolio. We see the Altura columns doing well and really strong, I would say demand for PFAS, which continues to grow in that area.

Padraig McDonnell

I think we won a number of really key marquee wins with a competitive win with two leading CXOs, and of course, winning in PFAS. I think we're very bullish about China for the future. Again, we were stable at about $300 million a quarter. You see the inflection point now. Of course, there's a long way to go, but in Q4, we're guiding strongly as well. We see strong momentum into China continuing to the year-end, and we're increasing our guide to high mid-single digits from flat, and our Q4 guidance is high single digits.

Michael Ryskin

Okay. My follow-up's on CAM, actually. You touched on it a little bit in your comments right there. You talked about applied materials, advanced materials being a little bit stronger, C&E being a little bit softer because the macro. Would just love to unpack that a little bit more. Expectations for that to continue, do you see sort of a light at the end of the tunnel there, or do you expect more of the same going forward?

Michael Ryskin

That's on the C&E side. Then on the other side, on the advanced materials, just talk a little bit about the strength there. You called out some of the reshoring initiatives in semi there too. Just would love to see how much traction, how much runway you think you have there. Thanks.

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah. Thanks for the question. CAM grew 7% in the quarter, and that was above our mid-single digit guide, and robust growth from advanced materials. We had double-digit growth in advanced materials, and that was really important across all geographies, more or less. C&E grew low single digits, but that again was against a tough compare of low double digits. Across the C&E business on a regional basis, you see APAC or Asia business led by refining and base chemical business. China benefited from specialty chemical business. Overall, pretty solid. What I will say, going forward in CAM, we see the semi opportunity, a really important opportunity over the long term. Just to put it into context, the semi opportunity is about 3%-4% of Agilent's revenue. We see fabs instrument demand 18-24 months after the fab. There's really a number of drivers.

Padraig McDonnell

First of all, investment in the semiconductor space. You can see that across the globe and as you see tariff policies and of course geopolitical reshoring in a number of areas. We typically see instrument demand 18-24 months after the fab. After that, you see advanced technology nodes and production volumes. What comes from this actually in these fabs, et cetera, is PFAS testing, which is going to be a long tail of growth for us. Overall, we're very pleased with the business and we expect to continue to see it growing.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Dan Leonard with RBC. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Dan Leonard

Thank you very much. I'm trying to think further on the sustainability of that double-digit growth rate in pharma. How dependent is double-digit growth in that end market on your CDMO business? In other words, what would you have grown without the Agilent Advanced Therapeutics business 30% growth rate?

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah. So look, we're really pleased with our biopharma and pharma business. In biopharma, we grew by 12% overall, 9% ex-CDMO. You can see the overhang from the MFN deals really help. The biotech grew double digits. Of course, you see CDMO growing nearly 30%. I think, again, you underpin that with a really strong GLP result of 70% growth.

Padraig McDonnell

So overall, we see a lot of reason to see this market continuing to grow. You think about a replacement cycle, which is crucial. It's a big part of this business, continue to hum along. Look at our instrument business on the LC side. Also, you see that Simon and Adam talked about the demand on the CDMO side and what we're planning for Train C, et cetera, next year. Then you underpin that with reshoring. So you see that pharma, I think we feel really good about the future on that in Q4 and of course going forward.

Dan Leonard

My follow-up question, Padraig, is on that reshoring point. Now that you have some early proof points and wins, do you have any sense for how much of the reshoring demand is incremental versus substitution? Really, what I'm trying to balance here is that low single-digit growth rate in Europe with all the positive reshoring commentary around your Americas business.

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah, it's pretty straightforward. I would say instruments and services are all incremental. Consumables is a little bit different by the nature of it, but I would say you can take it that the instrument and service business is all incremental.

Dan Leonard

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Puneet Souda with Leerink. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Puneet Souda

Yeah. Hi, Padraig and team. Thanks for taking my question here. I just wanted to see if you could parse out a bit about the pharma versus mid biotech versus small biotech. I think you talked about small biotech was still lagging last quarter. Could you talk about how did that fare in the quarter? I will just ask my second question here. The mRNA personalized cancer vaccine had quite a remarkable data. The category is expected to expand with further indication expansion. Just wondering how are you thinking about the opportunity there for Agilent. Obviously, you have gone into new modalities and in expanded positions and with CDMOs. So just wondering, how are you thinking about that? Thank you.

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah, I will take the first part and I will hand over to Simon on the mRNA side. So we have a relatively small exposure, but I would say encouraging uptick in small to mid-size biotech. You can see that in general, if you look at the macros in H1 2026, the total biopharma financing rose to $60 billion, doubling from $30 billion. So there is a huge amount of money going into the space. You have underpinned that with a looming patent cliff, which is height demand focus in M&A.

Padraig McDonnell

You see a lot of the licensing deals that are going in. So we are beginning to see the small and mid-size biotech spending return. We expect that is going to continue over the next few quarters, given the macros that we talked about. So we feel that is going to be an important part of that. But again, we have a relatively small exposure to that area. Simon, maybe you can talk a little bit about the new drug modality.

Simon May

Yeah, certainly we saw a pretty pivotal clinical trial readout in the very recent past year around mRNA that very much caught our attention. I think we obviously view it as really positive news, but I'd say it's going to be delayed impacts. The mRNA modality has been in a trough for a number of years now for quite a few reasons that I think we probably understand quite well. But I think what this did is really validated real world potential of mRNA as a modality in oncology applications, and we think that's ultimately going to mean good news both for analytical lab and for CDMO. We've got strong capabilities In both areas. To be clear, I don't think we'll see any immediate material impact there, but something to look out for the future.

Puneet Souda

Got it. All right. Thank you, and congrats again.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Dan Brennan with TD Cowen. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Dan Brennan

Great. Thank you. Thanks, guys, for the questions. Maybe just going back to China for my first one. China was substantially above what you guys expected, 9% versus flat. On 20% of your revenues, that's almost a whole level of the beat. Obviously, you guys are pointing to strength throughout the whole business, but I'm just wondering, outside of China, when you think about, I know Europe was a bit weaker than expected and North America. How would you characterize the trends outside of China, just given how strong China was?

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah, China was. We're really pleased to see what happened there in the businesses. Americas growing at 10%, really exceeding our high single-digit expectations, really strong. Again, that's without any reshoring benefit yet, et cetera, on that side. In Americas, we saw high teens in biotech and mid-single digits in small molecule. Overall, I think, again, on Americas AMG, slightly declined but a relatively small business for us. Again, in Europe, I wouldn't read too much into that number. It grew 2%, but that was over a really tough compare. Diagnostics, clinical, and CAM, and academia, and government all grew mid-single digits. Pharma grew low single digits, but that was against a low double-digit compare in the sight of it. Of course, on the academia side and government, we see some funding going into defense, and that's normal to see.

Padraig McDonnell

I think you can expect that to continue. Again, a relatively small part of the business. Asia doing extremely well as well as we go forward. Overall, we feel really good about it. Wouldn't read too much into Europe, and I think China was a real standout for us and a step up.

Dan Brennan

Terrific. Thanks for that. Then maybe just a follow-up just on CAM, just on the chemical and energy side of that business. I know last quarter was better than expected, and you talked about a conservative guide given the volatile macro. Just how would you characterize the outlook today? Oil's off the highs. PMIs are still expansionary, but the 10-year is north of 5%. Just wondering, are those customers, is it stable? Is it a little weakening? Is it a little strengthening? Any way to characterize the health of that kind of customer base? Obviously, you guys have a lot of idiosyncratic drivers there, but just overall from a demand perspective. Thanks.

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah. If we double-click on C&E, we grew low single digits on a tough compare. But looking at C&E on a regional basis, I talked a little bit about the Asia demand that we saw in refining and base chemical demand. China's benefiting from specialty chemical growth. AFO was flat but in the downturn in specialty chemical. EMEA was down amid the geopolitical disruption and delayed CapEx. But the way to look in it, we're the beneficiary on the production side and a little bit of headwind on the refining side, but we haven't seen any change in that. So we're actually really pleased with 7% growth in Q3 and above our mid-single-digit guide.

Padraig McDonnell

We feel for Q4, despite the high single-digit compares that we have, we expect growth to continue in the high single-digit range overall for CAM, and chemical and energy will be an important part of that too.

Dan Brennan

Great. Thank you.

Operator

We now ask that you kindly limit yourself to one question. Your next question comes from the line of Kallum Titchmarsh with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Kallum Titchmarsh

Great. Thanks for taking the question, guys. I wanted to dig a little more into some of the pricing initiatives that seem to be tracking ahead of the initial roadmap. I would love just a little more color on where you're perhaps being more proactive with taking price across the business. Then, how you're just thinking about that price contribution across the midterm, particularly if we're working through that period of end markets themselves improving. Thanks a lot.

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah, I'll kick it off, and I'll hand it over to Adam on this one. I think strong pricing year to date, it's one of the amazing compounding factors of the Ignite Operating System that we've seen. We've exceeded our initial full-year guide of 100 basis points plus for 2026, and we expect price momentum to continue into the year-end. If you look back on our quarters in FY 2025, we're well north of 100 basis points. That's 2x the pricing power over the previous year. Q1 was 200 basis points of pricing. Q2 was 200 basis points, and Q3 was 200 basis points. So we see that continuing as we go forward. Of course, that's really important as we deal with inflationary pressure. Ignite is really helping on that response as well as we go forward. Anything to add, Adam?

Adam Elinoff

The only piece I would add is that pricing isn't our only way that we're managing the inflationary pressures. We're also doing a lot around our supply chain management, looking at productivity across the business. The other piece is we're really focused on making sure that we're managing our inventory appropriately. So you'll see that our inventory went up a little bit, but that's just in response to some of the inflation that we're seeing and making sure that we have a resilient supply.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Luke Sergott with Barclays. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Luke, a reminder to kindly unmute yourself. Moving on. Your next question comes from the line of Evie Kozlosky with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Evie Kozlosky

Hey, thanks for squeezing me in. I wanted to touch on Agilent CrossLab. You have obviously had several quarters of really impressive instrument growth. So how should we think about the lag time between when the instrument is placed and then when you would actually expect to see the service contract booked related to that placement?

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah. So very pleased with our growth in Q3, modestly ahead of what we put out in our guide. We had service growing at mid-single digits and consumers growing at high single digits across all regions. But in terms of the lag time and what we see, maybe Angelica, you can add a little bit of color on this.

Angelica Riemann

Yeah. Thanks, Padraig, and thanks, Evie, for the question. We certainly see the increased demand for instruments translating to increased lab productivity. So it bodes well for ACG overall. As we look specifically at the instrument growth, that is also new demand as well as tech refresh. There is a bit of a lag because the first 12 months are under warranty. So we really start to see the cumulative effect of the opportunities to turn that into recurring ACG revenue about 12-18 months. And that continues to roll, obviously, as more and more of those instruments are turning from warranty to fully functional and absolute connect rate opportunities to ACG as a whole.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Casey Woodring with JPMorgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Casey Woodring

Great. Thank you for squeezing me in as well. Diagnostics grew 6% this quarter. You noted as a little bit below your expectations. Obviously, diagnostics growth of 11% last quarter, surprise to the upside. Maybe just walk through some of the dynamics you are seeing there. You mentioned underlying orders grew double digits. Just where are you seeing that strength in orders? I would be curious also to hear how the Omnis platform contributed, as I know you called that out last quarter as a strong growth contributor also. Thank you.

Padraig McDonnell

Yeah. I will start at a high level and I will bring Simon in. 6% growth in the quarter. We saw robust double-digit growth in pathology, which gives us really confidence in the underlying health of the business. CDX grew mid-teens, and we have a really unique position in that business, and genomics grew high single digits, and that is all underpinned by the expanded Dako Omnis family. Maybe you can provide more details, Simon.

Simon May

Yeah. I think overall for Q3, we continue to be really pleased with the momentum that we saw in pathology. We exited the quarter with a robust backlog. In our core pathology business, we had very strong order entry in the third quarter, and we continue to see really strong adoption of the Omnis family. The install base there that we are seeing is well on track, and we think that is a really good leading indicator as we go into fiscal year 2027. At the same time, as Padraig mentioned, we also saw robust continuing growth in companion diagnostics with mid-teens, and I think we have just got really solid momentum there between the secular drivers that we see with modalities like ADCs, Agilent's capabilities, and the very strong install base and underlying reputation that we have got.

Simon May

It was also nice to see return to growth in genomics there with high single-digit growth. You put it all together, we were a shade light on revenue for the quarter, driven, I'd say, primarily by that backlog that we carry into Q4. But the order entry was really strong, and we're very confident about the fourth quarter and the underlying momentum in the business.

Operator

This concludes the question and answer session. Mr. Tejas, I will turn the call back over to you.

Tejas Savant

Thank you everyone for joining us. We look forward to speaking with you soon.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-25

Earnings To Watch: Agilent (A) Reports Q2 Results Tomorrow

StockStory

Life sciences tools company Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) will be reporting results tomorrow after the bell. Here’s what investors should know. Agilent beat analysts’ revenue expectations last quarter, reporting revenues of $1.84 billion, up 10% year on year. It was a strong quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts’ organic revenue estimates and a narrow beat of analysts’ full-year EPS guidance estimates. Is Agilent a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members. This quarter, the market is expecting Agilent’s revenue to grow 6% year on year, slowing from the 10.1% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business will stay the course heading into earnings. Agilent rarely misses Wall Street’s revenue estimates. Looking at Agilent’s peers in the research tools & consumables segment, some have already reported their Q2 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Avantor posted flat year-on-year revenue, beating analysts’ expectations by 4.9%, and Sotera Health Company reported revenues up 9.2%, topping estimates by 3.8%. Avantor traded up 11.6% following the results while Sotera Health Company was also up 4.9%. Read our full analysis of Avantor’s results here and Sotera Health Company’s results here. There has been positive sentiment among investors in the research tools & consumables segment, with share prices up 7.3% on average over the last month. Agilent is up 12.4% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $160.89 (compared to the current share price of $154.98). ONE MORE THING: 3 Hidden Platforms Growing 3X Faster than Amazon, Google, and PayPal. Amazon, Google, and Meta all followed the same playbook: Dominate an ignored market. Build an unbeatable moat. Scale until you’re unstoppable. These three platforms are running that exact playbook right now. The early investors in Amazon made fortunes. The early investors in these could do the same. Get All 3 Stocks Here for FREE.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-24

US Equity Investors to Focus on Nvidia's Earnings, Chair Warsh's Jackson Hole Speech, PCE Inflation This Week

MT Newswires

US equity investors are expected to focus this week on Nvidia's (NVDA) earnings, Federal Reserve Cha

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-08-21

Exploring Analyst Estimates for Agilent (A) Q3 Earnings, Beyond Revenue and EPS

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Wall Street analysts forecast that Agilent Technologies (A) will report quarterly earnings of $1.48 per share in its upcoming release, pointing to a year-over-year increase of 8%. It is anticipated that revenues will amount to $1.84 billion, exhibiting an increase of 5.9% compared to the year-ago quarter. Over the past 30 days, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged. This demonstrates the covering analysts' collective reassessment of their initial projections during this period. Prior to a company's earnings release, it is of utmost importance to factor in any revisions made to the earnings projections. These revisions serve as a critical gauge for predicting potential investor behaviors with respect to the stock. Empirical studies consistently reveal a strong link between trends in earnings estimate revisions and the short-term price performance of a stock. While it's common for investors to rely on consensus earnings and revenue estimates for assessing how the business may have performed during the quarter, exploring analysts' forecasts for key metrics can yield valuable insights. In light of this perspective, let's dive into the average estimates of certain Agilent metrics that are commonly tracked and forecasted by Wall Street analysts. According to the collective judgment of analysts, 'Net Revenue- Applied Markets' should come in at $336.29 million. The estimate indicates a year-over-year change of +3.8%. Based on the collective assessment of analysts, 'Net Revenue- Agilent Crosslab Group' should arrive at $791.36 million. The estimate indicates a change of +6.4% from the prior-year quarter. The consensus among analysts is that 'Net Revenue- Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets Segment' will reach $712.11 million. The estimate indicates a change of +6.3% from the prior-year quarter. View all Key Company Metrics for Agilent here>>> Over the past month, shares of Agilent have returned +11.9% versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +2.8% change. Currently, A carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), suggesting that it may outperform. the overall market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>> . Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Agilent Technologies, Inc. (A) : F…Read full document

Wall Street analysts forecast that Agilent Technologies (A) will report quarterly earnings of $1.48 per share in its upcoming release, pointing to a year-over-year increase of 8%. It is anticipated that revenues will amount to $1.84 billion, exhibiting an increase of 5.9% compared to the year-ago quarter. Over the past 30 days, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged. This demonstrates the covering analysts' collective reassessment of their initial projections during this period. Prior to a company's earnings release, it is of utmost importance to factor in any revisions made to the earnings projections. These revisions serve as a critical gauge for predicting potential investor behaviors with respect to the stock. Empirical studies consistently reveal a strong link between trends in earnings estimate revisions and the short-term price performance of a stock. While it's common for investors to rely on consensus earnings and revenue estimates for assessing how the business may have performed during the quarter, exploring analysts' forecasts for key metrics can yield valuable insights. In light of this perspective, let's dive into the average estimates of certain Agilent metrics that are commonly tracked and forecasted by Wall Street analysts. According to the collective judgment of analysts, 'Net Revenue- Applied Markets' should come in at $336.29 million. The estimate indicates a year-over-year change of +3.8%. Based on the collective assessment of analysts, 'Net Revenue- Agilent Crosslab Group' should arrive at $791.36 million. The estimate indicates a change of +6.4% from the prior-year quarter. The consensus among analysts is that 'Net Revenue- Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets Segment' will reach $712.11 million. The estimate indicates a change of +6.3% from the prior-year quarter. View all Key Company Metrics for Agilent here>>> Over the past month, shares of Agilent have returned +11.9% versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +2.8% change. Currently, A carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), suggesting that it may outperform. the overall market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>> . Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Agilent Technologies, Inc. (A) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

As of 2026-09-05 • Updated weeklySource: Earnings sourceIngestion runbook