Agilent broadens its base

Article Excerpt

AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. $19 (New York symbol A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 343.3 million; Market cap: $6.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; WSSF Rating: Average) gets 60% of its revenue from selling testing equipment, mainly to makers of cyclical consumer electronics, such as cellphones. The company is now working on ways to broaden its sources of revenue. For example, Agilent has teamed up with the University of California at Los Angeles School of Public Health and the Los Alamos National Laboratory to develop testing equipment that will identify dangerous viruses, including H1N1 influenza, also known as swine flu. Agilent’s automated system analyzes a virus’s genetic components “hundreds of times” faster than current methods. This will help public-health officials control future outbreaks. Agilent is a buy. buy…