Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript November 20, 2023
Agilent Technologies, Inc. beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $1.38, expectations were $1.34.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Agilent Technologies Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Bo and I will be coordinating your call today. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand you over to your host, Parmeet Ahuja, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.
Parmeet Ahuja: Thank you, Bo, and welcome, everyone, to Agilent’s conference call for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023. With me are Mike McMullen, Agilent’s President and CEO; and Bob McMahon, Agilent’s Senior Vice President and CFO. This presentation is being webcast live. The news release for our fourth 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 www.investor.agilent.com. Today’s comments by Mike and Bob will refer to non-GAAP financial measures. You will find the most directly comparable GAAP financial metrics and reconciliations on our website. Unless otherwise noted, all references to increases or decreases in financial metrics year-over-year, and references to revenue growth are on a core basis.
Core revenue growth excludes the impact of currency and any acquisitions and divestitures completed within the past 12 months. Guidance is based on forecasted exchange rates. We will also 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. The company assumes no obligation to update them. Please look at the company’s recent SEC filings for a more complete picture of our risks and other factors. And now I’d like to turn the call over to Mike.
Mike McMullen: Thanks, Parmeet, and thanks, everyone, for joining our call today. Before we get into discussing our results and outlook, I want to mention that we’re joined today by Padraig McDonnell, President of the Agilent CrossLab Group; and Sam Raha, President of the Agilent Diagnostics and Genomics Group. We’re also joined on this call for the first time by Phil Binns, President of the Agilent Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group. Phil’s name may be new to some of you, but he’s well-known at Agilent and in the industry. Phil has been with us for more than 13 years, coming over with the Varian acquisition and overseeing our market leading spectroscopy business. We’re extremely pleased to have someone with Phil’s knowledge, experience and proven leadership strength heading up our LSAG business.
In his short time in the role, we’ve already seen Phil add tremendous value as a member of our senior leadership team. Welcome, Phil. Now onto our fourth quarter results. The Agilent team once again continued to perform well under challenging market conditions. Revenue of $1.69 billion declined 9.7% core after increasing 17.5% last year. This is at the high end of our guidance. Our proactive approach to managing our cost structure in this market environment helped us deliver healthy fourth quarter operating margins of 27.8%. Q4 earnings per share of $1.38 exceeded our guidance. While this was a decline of 10%, it comes against a tough compare last year when EPS grew 26%. While the market continues to be challenging, we believe we are starting to see signs of stabilization.
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