Agilent results, outlook top forecasts; shares rise

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Electronics testing equipment maker Agilent Technologies Inc (A.N) announced stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results and an upbeat outlook for the current quarter, helping its shares rise 3.35 percent.

While weak technology spending dragged down Agilent's revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter, ended October 31, by 21 percent to $1.17 billion, it was slightly better than Wall Street's average forecast of $1.1 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Cost-cuts also helped buffer the impact on its bottom line. It reported a net profit of $25 million, or 7 cents a share, compared with $231 million, or 64 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, Agilent earned 32 cents a share. Analysts, on average, expected 23 cents.

Chief Executive Bill Sullivan called it a "relatively strong finish to an extraordinarily difficult year." The company has struggled in the downturn, slashing thousands of jobs and cutting costs to cope with weak sales.

Sullivan said he believed that the fiscal third quarter represented "the bottom of the economic downturn" and that improved credit conditions were helping customers invest again.

"This gives us confidence that we will deliver positive revenue growth in 2010," he said.

For the current quarter, Agilent forecast earnings of 28 cents to 32 cents a share before one-time items, above Wall Street's average view of 27 cents. Revenue will likely be similar to year-ago levels, it said.

Shares of Santa Clara, California-based Agilent rose 92 cents to $28.35 in midday trade.

Sullivan, however, sounded a note of caution.

"While it seems clear that we are past the worst of the global downturn, the pace of recovery is expected to be slow and to vary considerably by market and geography," he said.

Agilent was spun off from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) in 1999. It sells electronic test equipment used by telecommunications companies as well as highly specialized life science equipment. (Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Derek Caney, Steve Orlofsky and John Wallace)