Agilent Technologies’ stock jumped after the company reported a better than expected third quarter, and a partnership with Gradient Design Automation.
“Although we are operating in a very challenging economic environment, we are pleased with our operational performance, as we continue to make progress improving our manufacturing efficiency and streamlining our expense structure,” said Bill Sullivan, Agilent’s CEO. “The result has been better than forecasted operating margins.”
The company’s third quarter orders were down 4% year-over-year to $1.60 billion, and revenues for the quarter were also down 4% to $1.65 billion. Net income was $168 million, a steep drop from $243 million in the prior year’s third quarter; Agilent said that number was due to about $65 million in various charges, including integration and transformation and intangible amortization costs.
The company noted that its electronic measurement revenues for the quarter were down 17% from last year, with weakness in wireless manufacturing. Its other testing businesses in chemical analysis, life sciences and diagnostics and genomics, all grew between 1 and 54%.
Agilent expects fourth-quarter revenues to be in the range of $1.7 billion-$1.72 billion.
The company announced today that it is expanding its business relationships with Gradient Design Automation, which provides technology for electro-thermal simulation for design of integrated circuits.
Last year, the company integrated some of Gradient’s technology in its Advanced Design System software for RFIC and MMIC development, and said that the product was so eagerly received that it has increased its financial commitment to the relationship in exchange for increased access to Gradient’s technology.
“After we selected Gradient’s technology and launched an integrated solution last year, our customers responded so enthusiastically we decided to expand our relationship with Gradient,” said Todd Cutler, general manager of Agilent EEsof EDA. “With thermal issues now one of the toughest challenges facing our customers working on power amplifier IC designs, electro-thermal simulation technology has become a critical part of our product portfolio.”
Agilent’s stock, after ending the day Wednesday around $46.50 a share, briefly hit $48 per share on Thursday and was trading at $47.73 around midday.
