A strong quarterly earnings report that beat analyst expectations, growth that extended into core pharma and biotech tools, plus improved investor guidance on revenue, operating margin, and earnings per share (EPS) were enough to send shares of Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A) jumping to their best one-day increase in nearly 24 years this past week. Agilent shares surged 17% from $115.79 to $135.42 Thursday, the first trading day after the tools giant announced better-than-expected results for the second quarter of its 2026 fiscal year ending April 30. Agilent operates on a fiscal year that ends October 31. That was the best one-day performance since November 19, 2002, when the stock ballooned 16% to $134.50. Shares inched up another 0.12% Friday, closing the week at $135.54—giving Agilent an 18% gain for the week and seven straight positive trading days. Agilent finished Q2 of FY’26 with net income of $339 million or $1.20 a share, up 58% from $215 million or 75 cents a share a year earlier, on revenue that rose 10% to $1.835 billion from $1.668 billion in the year-ago quarter, the company announced after the close of trading on Wednesday. Agilent’s “core” growth—which excludes the impact of currency and acquisitions and divestitures within the past 12 months—was 6.3%, exceeding the 4.8% growth forecasted by a consensus of Wall Street analysts cited by the company, as well as its earlier investor guidance of growth ranging from 4% to 5.5%. The consensus also predicted Q2 revenue of $1.79 billion, according to FactSet…
