UPDATE 3-Agilent profit beats Street; shares up

(Adds CEO comments; updates share price)

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES, May 14 (Reuters) - Agilent Technologies Inc (A.N), a maker of electronics testing gear, posted a higher second quarter profit that beat Wall Street forecasts on Wednesday, led by stronger sales in the Asia Pacific region and double-digit growth in its Bio-Analytical Measurement business.

Shares of Agilent rose more than 5 percent in after-hours trade before giving up some of its gains.

Agilent Chief Executive Bill Sullivan said the company shook off economic weakness in the United States, Europe and Japan by moving resources and personnel to growth areas, including India and China.

"U.S. and Europe and Japan are going through a tough economic environment and we believe our growth in Asia will continue," Sullivan told Reuters in an interview.

Globalization boosted Agilent's life science business, a division of the Bio-Analytical Measurement business that creates instruments to measure the composition of organic materials. Life Sciences posted double-digit growth in the areas of instrumentation for testing food safety, petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, Sullivan said.

Bio-Analytical Measurement accounts for about a third of quarterly revenues.

The company's electronic measurement division, which provides about two-thirds of quarterly revenue, grew by just 2 percent year over year.

'CAUTIOUS BUT UNCHANGED'

Second quarter net income rose to $173 million, or 47 cents per share, from $123 million, or 30 cents per share, in last year's second quarter. Net revenue rose 10 percent to $1.46 billion, from $1.32 billion a year earlier.

Excluding share-based compensation expenses and $5 million of other net income, Agilent reported adjusted income of 51 cents per share, compared with 43 cents per share a year earlier.

Excluding restructuring and asset impairments, intangible amortization, business disposal, gain from liquidation of a subsidiary, debt issuance and in process research and development, Agilent reported earnings of 46 cents per share.

On that basis, analysts were expecting earnings of 43 cents per share, as well as net revenue of $1.43 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

The company beat its own forecast, made in February, for second-quarter adjusted net income of 46 to 50 cents per share on revenue of $1.4 billion to $1.45 billion.

The company kept a "cautious but unchanged" outlook for third quarter revenues in the range of $1.44 billion to $1.49 billion, up 5 percent to 9 percent from last year, Sullivan said in a statement.