Tech spinoffs: one buy and one hold

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These two companies have had erratic histories since their parent firms spun them off. Agilent is up 13% since it was established as a separate company, while Teradata has gained 112%. We like the longterm outlook for both, but we only see Agilent as a buy right now. AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. $46 (New York symbol A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 345.0 million; Market cap: $15.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.agilent.com) makes testing systems that help electronics firms improve their products. It also manufactures testing gear for medical research labs. Agilent was a unit of Hewlett-Packard until 1999, when Hewlett spun it off as a separate firm. Agilent earned $269 million in its fiscal 2013 second quarter, which ended April 30, 2013. That’s down 2.2% from $275 million a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share fell 1.3%, to $0.77 from $0.78. Revenue was flat at $1.7…