Income fell to $95m, or 19 cents a share, from $104m, or 21 cents, a year ago. Revenue declined 7.8% to $1.69bn for its quarter ended April 30. Analysts had hoped for a 20-cent-a-share profit on revenue of $1.67bn, according to a Thomson Financial poll.
For the first time in a year and a half, sales decreased at its semiconductor unit, the company’s second largest, by 9% to $414m, primarily due to the sale of its camera module business that closed in mid-February. Sales of wireless handset semiconductors also were soft, but were offset somewhat by networking systems components, which grew 11% year-over-year, led by fiber optics and storage components.
While the broader semiconductor industry is expecting a rebound of sorts in the second half of this year, Agilent chief executive Bill Sullivan said in a conference call that will mean a slow rebound for its chip-equipment testing as the industry continues to work off excess test capacity.
Still, the Palo Alto, California-based company saw sales in test and measurement, its largest division, rise 6.9% to $748m.
At the end of the quarter, the company bulged with about $2.7bn in cash, which executives said might mean a dividend payment for shareholders.
Looking ahead, Agilent expects sales of between $1.7bn and $1.8bn for the current quarter, largely due to the beginning of a modest rebound in its semiconductor-related businesses, with earnings of between 23 cents to 28 cents per share, below analysts’ expectations of 31 cents.
