Agilent Technologies Reports Third-Quarter 2012 Results

Third-quarter GAAP net income was $243 million, or $0.69 per share. Last year's third-quarter GAAP net income was $330 million, or $0.92 per share.

During the third quarter, Agilent had intangible amortization of $32 million, acquisition and integration costs of $41 million, and asset impairment and write-down charges of $15 million. The company also recognized a tax benefit of $58 million. Excluding these items and $5 million of other net charges, Agilent reported third-quarter adjusted net income of $278 million, or $0.79 per share.

Bill Sullivan, Agilent president and CEO, said, "Agilent's performance in the fiscal third quarter did not meet our revenue and EPS guidance. We have clearly entered an environment of much slower growth, resulting in deals taking longer to close and customers delaying their order deliveries.

"Despite the global environment, however, we delivered a strong operating margin performance that underscores Agilent's ability to proactively respond to rapidly changing market conditions."
Electronic Measurement third-quarter revenues were down 1 percent over the prior year. Orders declined 4 percent from the same period last year. Growth in communications was driven by wireless manufacturing and was offset by weaker aerospace and defense and industrial demand.

Chemical Analysis revenues were flat with a year ago. Orders were down 7 percent. Food and forensics markets held steady, while petrochemical and energy were impacted by the global economy.

Life Sciences revenues grew 2 percent over last year, while orders declined 2 percent year over year. Growth in the pharma market was offset by a decline in academic and government.
Diagnostics and Genomics, which includes the recent Dako acquisition, had revenues of $106 million.

Agilent generated $240 million of cash from operations in the quarter. Third-quarter ROIC was 18 percent.

Fiscal fourth-quarter 2012 revenues are expected to be in the range of $1.76 billion to $1.78 billion. Fiscal fourth-quarter non-GAAP earnings are expected to be in the range of $0.80 to $0.82 per share.