Agilent’s Net Income More Than Doubles

Agilent Technologies Inc. said fiscal fourth-quarter net income, including one-time items, more than doubled to $305 million, or 66 cents a share, from $146 million, or 39 cents a share, a year earlier. The maker of test and measurement equipment said sales rose 38% to $3.37 billion, led by sales of communications-related devices. Agilent, which was spun off by Hewlett-Packard Co. in June, said the earnings figures include a 17-cent gain from the sale of assets and a 3-cent charge from restructuring. A poll of financial analysts by First Call/Thomson Financial had forecast 53 cents. First Call research analyst Joe Cooper said, “Analysts were excluding the 3-cent charge but including the 17-cent gain, so that would mean they reported 69 cents versus the 53 cents First Call number.”