Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, February 22, 2019

Article Excerpt

KEYSIGHT TECHNOLOGIES INC., $82.46, New York symbol KEYS, makes devices for testing electronic equipment. In April 2017, the company acquired California-based Ixia. Keysight paid $1.6 billion for that firm, which makes software to test wireless and computer networks. Thanks to those new operations, overall revenue for the fiscal 2019 first quarter, ended January 31, 2019, jumped 20.2%, to $1.01 billion from $837 million a year earlier. That beat the consensus forecast of $979.2 million. If you exclude businesses that the company bought and sold in the past year, revenue rose 16.6%. Earnings in the quarter before unusual items jumped 82.4%, to $0.93 a share (or a total of $176 million) from $0.51 a share (or $97 million). That easily beat the consensus estimate of $0.80. A big part of the higher results is due to strong demand for equipment that manufacturers of cellphones and wireless networks use to test their new 5G (fifth generation) communication networks. These new systems could be as much as…