Agilent Shares Up 4% On Company Earnings Beat

Shares of Agilent Technologies Inc. rose more than 4% late Monday after the lab company reported earnings and revenue above Wall Street expectations. Agilent said it earned $164 million, or 50 cents a share, in the fiscal second quarter, compared with $91 million, or 28 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue reached $1.1 billion, up 8% from $1 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected per-share earnings of 48 cents on sales of $1.05 billion. "We saw a strong pick up in the chemical and energy business after modest gains last quarter, and strong growth in pharma and Europe also contributed to the upside," the company said in a statement. The stock ended the regular trading session down 0.1%.