Life sciences firm Agilent beats quarterly estimates on instrument demand

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(Reuters) -Agilent Technologies beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit and revenue on Wednesday, helped by strong demand for its tools and equipment used in drug development, sending its shares up 5.1% in extended trading.

The company also raised its annual revenue forecast to be between $6.73 billion and $6.81 billion, compared to its prior expectations of $6.68 billion to $6.76 billion. It maintained its fiscal 2025 adjusted profit forecast at $5.54 to $5.61 per share.

Life sciences firms like Agilent have seen weak order levels in the past two years due to reduced spending from biotech clients, and investors have expressed concerns that the difficulties, initially expected to ease this year, may persist due to policy uncertainties from the Trump administration.

“The Agilent team delivered strong second-quarter results in a highly dynamic market environment,” said President and CEO Padraig McDonnell.

Agilent, which was spun off from pre-split Hewlett-Packard in 2000, reported second-quarter sales of $1.67 billion, above the analysts’ estimate of $1.63 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Sales in its life sciences and diagnostics segment were at $654 million, beating the estimate of $639.4 million, while revenue from its CrossLab unit, which offers products and services for laboratory management, came in at $713 million, above the estimate of $645.1 million.

On an adjusted basis, the California-based company reported a profit of $1.31 per share, beating the estimate of $1.26 per share.

(Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)