imagine if you had to do something super hard, like a lot of math problems or a hard science project, and you practiced for a long time. Then, when the day of the test came, you still didn't know the answers. That's like what happened to Agilent Technologies - they thought they would sell a certain amount of stuff in the third part of the year, but now it seems like they didn't sell as much as they thought they would. They're going to announce this soon, and people are expecting the numbers to be a little lower than what was predicted.

### DARLA:
In simple words, Agilent Technologies is a company that makes scientific instruments and they sell these things to different people and businesses. They will soon tell everyone how well they did in the third part of this year, and people are guessing that they might have sold less stuff than they expected. This could be because of many reasons like slow demand or less money being spent by customers.

### JACOB:
Agilent Technologies is a company that makes scientific instruments, like machines that help scientists study very small things. They will soon tell everyone how well they did in the third part of this year. People thought they would sell a certain amount of these instruments, but now it looks like they might have sold less than they thought. This could be because some customers didn't spend as much money on buying these instruments or because there was less demand for these machines. Read from source...

mostly negative.

bullish
Reasons: The article details how Agilent Technologies is expected to report better-than-expected Q3 earnings. The company has beaten Zacks consensus estimates in all the last four quarters on average by 4.13%. The article also provides a number of stocks to consider for potential investments, including American Eagle Outfitters and Abercrombie & Fitch.

Agilent Technologies A is set to report its third-Quarter fiscal 2024 results on Aug 21. For the fiscal third quarter, the company expects revenues of $1.535-$1.575 billion, suggesting a decline of 8.2-5.8% on a reported basis and 6.9-4.5% on a core basis from the year-ago quarter's actuals. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same is pegged at $1.56 billion, implying a decline of 6.6% from the year-ago quarter's reported figure. Agilent's non-GAAP earnings per share are expected to be $1.25-$1.28. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $1.25 per share, indicating a fall of 12.6% from the year-ago quarter's reported figure. The estimate has been revised downward by 0.8%. Agilent's earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, the average being 4.13%. The company is expected to have gained from the growing momentum across Agilent Cross Lab Group ("ACG") segment in the fiscal third quarter. The ACG segment is likely to have benefited from the solid momentum across end markets and various geographic regions. Strength in services attached to new instrument installations and existing instrument base is likely to have contributed well. Growing lab demand, along with solid momentum in the CrossLab team, is anticipated to have contributed well. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ACG is pegged at $410 million, implying growth of 3.5% from the year-ago quarter's reported figure. Agilent's strength in the pathology business, owing to solid clinical demand for Agilent's Cancer Dx platform, is expected to have continued benefiting the Diagnostics and Genomics Group ("DGG") segment's performance in the fiscal third quarter. However, sluggishness in NGS Chemistries, cell analysis and NASD is likely to have been concerning. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for DGG is pegged at $405 million, implying growth of 16% from the year-ago quarter's reported figure. Meanwhile, the weakening momentum in the Life Sciences & Applied Markets Group ("LSAG") segment is expected to have been a major headwind for Agilent. Macroeconomic uncertainties, soft market conditions in China and sluggish capital spending by customers are expected to have negatively impacted the segment in the quarter under review. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LSAG is pegged at $755 million, implying a decline of 18.6% from the year-ago quarter's reported figure. Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Agilent this time around. According to the Zacks model, the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold)