On August 14, 2019 Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: A) reported revenue of $1.27 billion for the third quarter ended July 31, 2019, up 6 percent year-over-year (and up 6 percent on a core basis(1)) (Press release, Agilent, AUG 14, 2019, https://www.agilent.com/about/newsroom/presrel/2019/14aug-gp19016.html [SID1234538758]).

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On a GAAP basis, third quarter net income was $191 million or $0.60 per share. This compares with $236 million or $0.73 per share in the third quarter of 2018. Non-GAAP net income(2) was $240 million or $0.76 per share during the quarter, compared with $217 million or $0.67 per share during the third quarter a year ago.

"The Agilent team delivered very strong results in the third quarter, exceeding both our top and bottom-line expectations," said Mike McMullen, Agilent president and CEO. "Building on this performance, we are increasing our guidance for the full year. In the quarter, we also announced the pending acquisition of BioTek, continuing our investments in high growth markets. BioTek will significantly expand our presence in the fast-growing field of cell analysis."

Financial Highlights

Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group

Third quarter revenue of $544 million from Agilent’s Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group (LSAG) was up 1 percent year-over-year (and flat on a core basis(1)). Demand in the pharma, environmental and forensics markets was strong, offset by expected weakness in the food market. LSAG’s operating margin for the quarter was 21.7 percent.

Agilent CrossLab Group

Third quarter revenue of $467 million from the Agilent CrossLab Group (ACG) grew 10 percent year-over-year (up 11 percent on a core basis(1)). Growth was broad-based across all regions and market segments. ACG’s operating margin for the quarter was 26.2 percent.

Diagnostics and Genomics Group

Third quarter revenue of $263 million from Agilent’s Diagnostics and Genomics Group (DGG) grew 11 percent year-over-year (up 13 percent on a core basis(1)). Growth in the company’s Nucleic Acid Solutions Division (NASD), and in the diagnostics and clinical markets drove the strong results. DGG’s operating margin for the quarter was 19.1 percent.

Full-Year and Fourth Quarter Outlook

For fiscal year 2019, the company is raising revenue guidance at the midpoint, to a range of $5.105 billion to $5.125 billion. Full-year non-GAAP earnings guidance is being increased to a range of $3.07 to $3.09 per share(3).

Agilent expects fourth quarter 2019 revenue in the range of $1.31 billion to $1.33 billion. Fourth quarter 2019 non-GAAP earnings are expected to be in the range of $0.84 to $0.86 per share(3).

Both the fiscal year and fourth quarter guidance excludes any impact of the pending BioTek acquisition. The acquisition is still expected to be completed in Agilent’s fiscal fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Conference Call

Agilent’s management will present more details about its third quarter fiscal year 2019 financial results on a conference call with investors today at 1:30 p.m. (Pacific Time). This event will be webcast live in listen-only mode. Listeners may log on at www.investor.agilent.com and select "Q3 2019 Agilent Technologies Inc. Earnings Conference Call" in the "News & Events — Calendar of Events" section. The webcast will remain available on the company’s website for 90 days.

The adjustment for taxes excludes tax benefits that management believes are not directly related to on-going operations and which are either isolated or cannot be expected to occur again with any regularity or predictability. For the three and nine months ended July 31, 2019, management used a non-GAAP effective tax rate of 16.67% and 16.75%, respectively. In the same periods last year, management used a non-GAAP effective tax rate of 18%.

We provide non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per share amounts in order to provide meaningful supplemental information regarding our operational performance and our prospects for the future. These supplemental measures exclude, among other things, charges related to amortization of intangibles, business exit and divestiture costs, transformational initiatives, acquisition and integration costs, pension settlement gain, gain on step acquisition of Lasergen, NASD site costs, special compliance costs, adjustment for Tax Reform, and tax benefit on intra-entity asset transfer.

Business exit and divestiture costs include costs associated with business divestitures.

Transformational initiatives include expenses associated with targeted cost reduction activities such as manufacturing transfers including costs to move manufacturing due to new tariffs and tariff remediation actions, small site consolidations, legal entity and other business reorganizations, insourcing or outsourcing of activities. Such costs may include move and relocation costs, one-time termination benefits and other one-time reorganization costs. Included in this category are also expenses associated with company programs to transform our product lifecycle management (PLM) system, human resources and financial systems.

Acquisition and Integration costs include all incremental expenses incurred to effect a business combination. Such acquisition costs may include advisory, legal, accounting, valuation, and other professional or consulting fees. Such integration costs may include expenses directly related to integration of business and facility operations, the transfer of assets and intellectual property, information technology systems and infrastructure and other employee-related costs.

Pension settlement gain resulted from transfer of the substitutional portion of our Japanese pension plan to the government.

Gain on step acquisition of Lasergen resulted from the measurement at fair value of our equity interest held at the date of business combination.

NASD site costs include all the costs related to the expansion of our manufacturing of nucleic acid active pharmaceutical ingredients incurred prior to the commencement of commercial manufacturing.

Special compliance costs include costs associated with transforming our processes to implement new regulations such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), revenue recognition and certain tax reporting requirements.

Other includes certain legal costs and settlements in addition to other miscellaneous adjustments.

Adjustment for Tax Reform primarily consists of an estimated provision of $480 million for U.S. transition tax and correlative items on deemed repatriated earnings of non-U.S. subsidiaries and an estimated provision of $53 million associated with the decrease in the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and its impact on our U.S. deferred tax assets and liabilities. The taxes payable associated with the transition tax, net of tax attributes, on deemed repatriation of foreign earnings is approximately $440 million, payable over 8 years.

Tax benefit on intra-entity asset transfer relates to our operations in Singapore along with our application of the new accounting rules for income tax consequences of intra-entity transfer of assets as adopted on November 1, 2018.

Our management uses non-GAAP measures to evaluate the performance of our core businesses, to estimate future core performance and to compensate employees. Since management finds this measure to be useful, we believe that our investors benefit from seeing our results "through the eyes" of management in addition to seeing our GAAP results. This information facilitates our management’s internal comparisons to our historical operating results as well as to the operating results of our competitors.

Our management recognizes that items such as amortization of intangibles can have a material impact on our cash flows and/or our net income. Our GAAP financial statements including our statement of cash flows portray those effects. Although we believe it is useful for investors to see core performance free of special items, investors should understand that the excluded items are actual expenses that may impact the cash available to us for other uses. To gain a complete picture of all effects on the company’s profit and loss from any and all events, management does (and investors should) rely upon the GAAP income statement. The non-GAAP numbers focus instead upon the core business of the company, which is only a subset, albeit a critical one, of the company’s performance.

Readers are reminded that non-GAAP numbers are merely a supplement to, and not a replacement for, GAAP financial measures. They should be read in conjunction with the GAAP financial measures. It should be noted as well that our non-GAAP information may be different from the non-GAAP information provided by other companies.

The preliminary non-GAAP net income and diluted EPS reconciliation is estimated based on our current information.

Income from operations reflect the results of our reportable segments under Agilent’s management reporting system which are not necessarily in conformity with GAAP financial measures. Income from operations of our reporting segments exclude, among other things, charges related to amortization of intangibles, business exit and divestiture costs, transformational initiatives, acquisition and integration costs, gain on step acquisition of Lasergen, NASD site costs, and special compliance costs.

Readers are reminded that non-GAAP numbers are merely a supplement to, and not a replacement for, GAAP financial measures. They should be read in conjunction with the GAAP financial measures. It should be noted as well that our non-GAAP information may be different from the non-GAAP information provided by other companies.

We compare the year-over-year change in revenue excluding the effect of recent acquisitions and divestitures and foreign currency rate fluctuations to assess the performance of our underlying business.

(a) The constant currency year-over-year growth percentage is calculated by recalculating all periods in the comparison period at the foreign currency exchange rates used for accounting during the last month of the current quarter, and then using those revised values to calculate the year-over-year percentage change.

(b) The dollar impact from the current quarter currency impact is equal to the total year-over-year dollar change less the constant currency year-over-year change.

The preliminary reconciliation of GAAP revenue adjusted for recent acquisitions and divestitures and impact of currency is estimated based on our current information.