stockrowWhat it does
Agilent Technologies is a laboratory-tools company serving life sciences, diagnostics and applied markets. It was founded in 1999, is headquartered in Santa Clara, and is led by President and Chief Executive Officer Padraig McDonnell.
The company supplies the equipment, materials and support used to prepare, test and interpret laboratory samples. Its offerings include instruments, software, services and consumables across laboratory workflows. Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets sells liquid chromatography and mass-spectrometry systems, cell-analysis tools, pathology products, genomics reagents, companion-diagnostic development services, biomolecular-analysis tools, and contract development and manufacturing services for oligonucleotide active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Agilent CrossLab serves laboratories after and alongside instrument purchases. It provides repairs, parts, maintenance, installation, training, compliance support, asset management, consulting, laboratory supplies, software and laboratory automation. Its OpenLab software supports instrument control, data acquisition, analysis, storage and laboratory workflow management.
Applied Markets provides instruments and software for customers that need to identify, quantify and analyze physical or biological properties of substances and products. Its work includes gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, vacuum technology and remarketed instruments. Customers use these tools in pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical research, clinical testing, chemicals, advanced materials, food safety, environmental testing and forensics.
Agilent operates three reportable segments: Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets, Agilent CrossLab and Applied Markets.
How it makes money
Agilent earns revenue from instrument sales, consumables, software and laboratory services. Its Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets segment supplies research, clinical and pharmaceutical workflows, including liquid chromatography, liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, pathology, genomics and specialty contract development and manufacturing. The segment reported $2.7 billion of revenue in FY2025.
Agilent CrossLab reported $2.9 billion of FY2025 revenue. It supplies services, consumables, software and automation across laboratories, including instruments from other vendors in the vendor-neutral part of its consumables portfolio. Its services include maintenance, troubleshooting, repair, training and compliance support; its consumables include chromatography columns, sample-preparation products, chemical standards and instrument parts. The company states that its service and consumables businesses are mostly recurring in nature and less susceptible to seasonality and industry cycles than instrument businesses.
Applied Markets reported $1.3 billion of FY2025 revenue from gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, vacuum technology and remarketed instruments. Agilent sells primarily through direct sales, while also using distributors, resellers, manufacturers’ representatives and electronic commerce. It competes on product performance, reliability, support quality, applications expertise, solution breadth, channel coverage and price.
FY2025 net revenue was $6,948 million; Q3 FY2026 revenue was $1.88 billion.
Products revenue was $4.9 billion in FY2025, while Non-Instrumentation and Other revenue was $4.5 billion. Instrumentation revenue was $2.4 billion, and Services and Other revenue was $2.0 billion.
| Product or service | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Products | $4.9 billion | 35.6% | 5.82% |
| Non-Instrumentation and Other | $4.5 billion | 32.5% | 8.78% |
| Instrumentation | $2.4 billion | 17.5% | 3.10% |
| Services and Other | $2.0 billion | 14.4% | 9.03% |
Customers and how it sells
Agilent serves pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, diagnostics and clinical laboratories, academic institutions, government institutes, chemicals and advanced-materials companies, food producers and testing laboratories, environmental laboratories, and forensic users. Its Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets segment had approximately 22,200 customers in fiscal 2025; Agilent CrossLab had approximately 59,700; and Applied Markets had approximately 17,200. A significant number of CrossLab and Applied Markets customers also use other Agilent segments.
The company primarily uses direct sales for customer accounts. Sales agents broaden geographic and smaller-account coverage, while resellers, distributors, manufacturers’ representatives and electronic commerce supplement direct selling. Consumables are sold through distributors, electronic commerce and direct sales.
Rest Of World revenue was $3.4 billion in FY2025, and Americas revenue was $2.8 billion. UNITED STATES revenue was $2.3 billion, Asia Pacific revenue was $2.2 billion, Europe revenue was $1.9 billion, and CHINA Including Hong Kong revenue was $1.2 billion.
In Q3 FY2026, China revenue grew 9%. The company attributes China activity to local manufacturing, go-to-market capabilities, commercial accounts and end-market exposure including pharmaceuticals, food, advanced materials and laboratory testing.
| Region | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rest Of World | $3.4 billion | 24.3% | 11.0% |
| Americas | $2.8 billion | 20.2% | 9.06% |
| UNITED STATES | $2.3 billion | 16.9% | 4.27% |
| Asia Pacific | $2.2 billion | 16.0% | 2.40% |
| Europe | $1.9 billion | 13.8% | 8.64% |
| CHINA Including Hong Kong | $1.2 billion | 8.81% | 0.58% |
Suppliers and costs
Agilent centralizes order fulfillment and supply-chain operations through OFS, which provides manufacturing, engineering and strategic-sourcing resources to the businesses. The company manufactures configurable products to individual customer orders and standard products to stock. It selectively uses third parties for supply-chain processes including manufacturing, warehousing and logistics.
Its primary research, development and manufacturing sites span the United States, Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom. The company does not name key or sole-source suppliers in the information provided.
Costs can be affected by tariffs, trade policies, component availability, transportation flows, inflation and regional conflicts. In Q3 FY2026, gross margin was 56.4% and operating margin was 28.3%, including a net benefit from tariff refunds. The company is using supply-chain optimization, manufacturing moves, targeted pricing and cost-efficiency initiatives to address tariff and inflationary pressures.
- Revenue$6.9B
- Cost of revenue−$3.3B
- Research and development−$455.0M
- Selling, general and administrative−$1.7B
- Operating income$1.5B
Competitive position
Agilent competes in analytical instruments, laboratory supplies, software, automation, services and contract development and manufacturing. Competition is described as intense and shaped by evolving industry standards. In Life Sciences and Diagnostics Markets, named competitors include AB Sciex, a division of Danaher Corporation; Avecia, a division of Nitto Denko; Bruker; Leica Biosystems, a division of Danaher Corporation; Roche Ventana Medical Systems, a member of the Roche Group; Shimadzu; Thermo Fisher Scientific; Twist Bioscience; and Waters.
In CrossLab and Applied Markets, named competitors include Danaher, PerkinElmer, Shimadzu, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Waters, alongside niche service providers. Agilent competes through performance, reliability, support quality, applications expertise, solution offerings, channel coverage and price.
Our reading: Agilent’s installed laboratory relationships and CrossLab’s vendor-neutral consumables and service capabilities provide a meaningful source of continuity with customers, because the portfolio can support laboratories irrespective of their instrument choices. [item1]
Our reading: The company’s workflow coverage—from instruments and consumables to software, automation and services—is a meaningful moat source where customers value integrated laboratory operations, although named global instrument and diagnostics competitors operate across several of the same categories. [item1]
| Competitor | Where they compete | Threat (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| Danaher Corporation | life sciences, diagnostics, services and applied laboratory markets | High |
| Waters Corporation | analytical instruments, services and consumables | High |
| Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. | life sciences and applied laboratory markets | High |
| Shimadzu Corporation | analytical instruments and applied laboratory markets | Medium |
| PerkinElmer Inc. | CrossLab and applied laboratory markets | Medium |
| Bruker, Inc. | life sciences and diagnostics analytical products | Medium |
| Roche Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. | pathology and cancer diagnostics | Medium |
| Twist Bioscience Corporation | genomics and life sciences workflows | Medium |
Growth opportunities
Agilent’s stated growth drivers include improving conditions in pharmaceutical, chemicals and advanced-materials, diagnostics and clinical, food, environmental and forensic markets; instrument replacement cycles; product launches; China activity; pharmaceutical reshoring; semiconductor investment; and the Ignite operating system.
The company reported Q3 FY2026 core revenue growth of 7.3%. It reported nearly 30% growth in its Advanced Therapeutics division, which includes specialty contract development and manufacturing operations. It expects the Train C facility to begin generating revenue in the spring and to ramp over the following six to eight quarters. The company states that a majority of its available Train C capacity is booked.
The company sizes its pharmaceutical reshoring opportunity at $1.0 billion through 2030 and expects to win at least one-third of it. It states that reshoring revenue contributions are expected to build in fiscal 2027 and beyond. It also states that semiconductor-fab instrument demand typically follows construction by 18 to 24 months.
In Q3 FY2026, the order funnel for the 9500 triple quad ICP-MS exceeded $60.0 million. Orders for newly shipping 8890B and 8860B gas chromatography systems exceeded expectations by 2.0× in their first two months. The number of new accounts adopting BioPharm Altura columns grew 28.0% quarter over quarter.
- $6.3BFY2021
- $6.8BFY2022
- $6.8BFY2023
- $6.5BFY2024
- $6.9BFY2025
- $7.5BFY2026 guidance
Structural risks
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General economic conditions can reduce demand, extend sales cycles, delay order shipments, increase cancellations, create excess or obsolete inventory and increase price pressure.
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Tariffs, trade protection measures, customs duties, export controls, sanctions and other trade barriers can increase costs, disrupt supply chains, restrict global shipments or sourcing, and require operational changes.
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Manufacturing capacity may not match demand. The company must identify customer needs, develop and commercialize technologies, manufacture and deliver products in sufficient volumes and on time, and maintain product quality.
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Products and services are subject to regulation by the FDA, other health authorities, government-contract rules and global privacy and data-security requirements. Noncompliance can lead to fines, operating restrictions, product recalls, loss of export privileges, contract suspension or debarment.
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Competition requires the company to differentiate its offerings, price competitively and anticipate competitors’ products, services and technological innovations.
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Debt can limit flexibility, increase vulnerability to business downturns and competitive pressure, and require a larger portion of operating cash flow to be dedicated to debt service.
Bottom line
Our reading
Our reading: Agilent is a laboratory-workflow business combining instruments with consumables, services, software and automation across pharmaceutical, clinical and applied laboratories; the CrossLab portfolio adds recurring activity that is less tied to instrument cycles. [item1]
Our reading: Its business is exposed to customer capital spending, regulation, trade policy and global manufacturing costs, while its stated expansion paths include instrument replacement, specialty CDMO capacity, semiconductor demand and pharmaceutical reshoring. [item1; item1a; call_prepared; call_qa]
Our reading: The breadth of workflow offerings and multi-channel global customer coverage support cross-selling, but the company faces established competitors across instruments, diagnostics, laboratory services and consumables. [item1]