Life sciences tools company Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A) reported Q1 CY2026 results exceeding the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 10% year on year to $1.84 billion. The company expects next quarter’s revenue to be around $1.84 billion, close to analysts’ estimates. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.49 per share was 5.8% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Company Overview

Originally spun off from Hewlett-Packard in 1999 as its measurement and analytical division, Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A) provides analytical instruments, software, services, and consumables for laboratory workflows in life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years. Regrettably, Agilent’s sales grew at a mediocre 4.5% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This fell short of our benchmark for the healthcare sector and is a poor baseline for our analysis.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within healthcare, a half-decade historical view may miss recent innovations or disruptive industry trends. Agilent’s annualized revenue growth of 4.7% over the last two years aligns with its five-year trend, suggesting its demand was consistently weak.

We can dig further into the company’s sales dynamics by analyzing its organic revenue, which strips out one-time events like acquisitions and currency fluctuations that don’t accurately reflect its fundamentals. Over the last two years, Agilent’s organic revenue averaged 4% year-on-year growth. Because this number aligns with its two-year revenue growth, we can see the company’s core operations (not acquisitions and divestitures) drove most of its results.

This quarter, Agilent reported year-on-year revenue growth of 10%, and its $1.84 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 1.9%. Company management is currently guiding for a 5.9% year-on-year increase in sales next quarter.

Looking further ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 5.3% over the next 12 months, similar to its two-year rate. This projection is above the sector average and indicates its newer products and services will help maintain its recent top-line performance.

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Adjusted Operating Margin

Agilent’s adjusted operating margin has more or less stayed the same over the last 12 months , averaging 26.3% over the last five years. This profitability was top-notch for a healthcare business, showing it’s a well-run company with an efficient cost structure.

Looking at the trend in its profitability, Agilent’s adjusted operating margin of 25.1% for the trailing 12 months may be around the same as five years ago, but it has decreased by 1.9 percentage points over the last two years.

This quarter, Agilent generated an adjusted operating margin profit margin of 23.5%, down 1.6 percentage points year on year. This reduction is quite minuscule and indicates the company’s overall cost structure has been relatively stable.

Earnings Per Share

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

Agilent’s EPS grew at 8.9% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 4.5% annualized revenue growth. However, this alone doesn’t tell us much about its business quality because its adjusted operating margin didn’t improve.

We can take a deeper look into Agilent’s earnings to better understand the drivers of its performance. A five-year view shows that Agilent has repurchased its stock, shrinking its share count by 7.8%. This tells us its EPS outperformed its revenue not because of increased operational efficiency but financial engineering, as buybacks boost per share earnings.

In Q1, Agilent reported adjusted EPS of $1.49, up from $1.31 in the same quarter last year. This print beat analysts’ estimates by 5.8%. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Agilent’s full-year EPS to grow 7.9% from $5.81 to $6.27.

Key Takeaways from Agilent’s Q1 Results

We enjoyed seeing Agilent beat analysts’ organic revenue expectations this quarter. We were also happy its revenue outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, its EPS guidance for next quarter slightly missed. Overall, this print had some key positives. The stock traded up 6.6% to $123.50 immediately following the results.

Agilent had an encouraging quarter, but one earnings result doesn’t necessarily make the stock a buy. Let’s see if this is a good investment. What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).