NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Agilent Technologies said after the close of the market Monday that its fourth quarter revenues increased 7 percent year over year.
For the three months ended Oct. 31, Agilent reported revenues of $1.19 billion compared to $1.11 billion in the same quarter a year ago. On average, analysts had expected Q4 revenues of $1.17 billion.
On a non-GAAP basis, excluding the impact of currency, divestiture costs associated with the exit of the NMR business, and other acquisitions and divestitures within the past 12 months, revenues grew 6 percent year over year.
Agilent's crosslab group grew 9 percent year over year to $404 million, with healthy growth across services and consumables and across most regions and end markets, while its diagnostics and genomics group revenues grew 9 percent to $210 million led by increasing demand for pathology products and companion diagnostics services. Meanwhile, the firm's life sciences and applied markets group grew 5 percent year over year to $575 million with strength in chemical and energy, academia and government, and food end markets.
Net income in the fourth quarter was $177 million, or $.54 per share, up from $126 million, or $.38 per share in the year-ago quarter. Excluding intangible amortization of $28 million, transformation costs of $7 million, and acquisition and integrations costs of $5 million, adjusted EPS was $.67 per share in Q4 2017, besting the Wall Street estimate of $.62 per share.
Agilent spent $89 million on R&D in the fourth quarter, up 6 percent from $84 million a year ago. The company's SG&A expenses rose 1 percent to $325 million from $321 million a year ago.
For full fiscal year 2017, Agilent posted revenues of $4.47 billion, up 6 percent from $4.20 billion in fiscal year 2016 and ahead of analysts' average estimate of $4.45 billion.
Full-year 2017 net income was $684 million, or $2.10 per share, compared to $462 million, or $1.40 per share a year ago. On a non-GAAP basis, EPS was $2.36, beating analysts' average estimate for EPS of $2.32.
Agilent's full-year R&D expenses grew 3 percent to $339 million from $329 million, while its SG&A expenses fell 2 percent to $1.23 billion from $1.25 billion.
The company finished the quarter with $2.68 billion in cash and cash equivalents.
Agilent said that it expects fiscal first quarter 2018 revenue of $1.145 billion to $1.165 billion, with non-GAAP EPS of $.55 to $.57 per share. Analysts on average are expecting Q1 revenues of $1.15 billion and adjusted EPS of $.60.
For fiscal year 2018 the company is expecting revenues of $4.72 billion to $4.74 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $2.50 to $2.56. Wall Street is expecting fiscal year 2018 revenues of $4.73 billion and adjusted EPS of $2.59.