Agilent reported a strong Q3 FY26 with revenue and EPS beating guidance, driven by broad-based growth across all end markets, particularly pharma and China. Management raised full-year guidance, citing sustained momentum from its Ignite operating system, new product launches, and improving market conditions. Q3 revenue grew 7.3% core to $1.88B, above guidance; ex-refund EPS of $1.56 beat by $0.06.
Agilent reported a strong Q3 FY26 with revenue and EPS beating guidance, driven by broad-based growth across all end markets, particularly pharma and China. Management raised full-year guidance, citing sustained momentum from its Ignite operating system, new product launches, and improving market conditions. Q3 revenue grew 7.3% core to $1.88B, above guidance; ex-refund EPS of $1.56 beat by $0.06.
Book-to-build came in above 1 for the 10th consecutive quarter; instrument orders met or grew faster than revenue. China grew 9% ahead of flat guidance with the momentum continuing into year-end, and pharma reshoring orders have started to flow (five of top 10 pharma booked in…
Book-to-build came in above 1 for the 10th consecutive quarter; instrument orders met or grew faster than revenue. China grew 9% ahead of flat guidance with the momentum continuing into year-end, and pharma reshoring orders have started to flow (five of top 10 pharma booked in…
Book-to-build came in above 1 for the 10th consecutive quarter; instrument orders met or grew faster than revenue. China grew 9% ahead of flat guidance with the momentum continuing into year-end, and pharma reshoring orders have started to flow (five of top 10 pharma booked in…
New products (9500 ICP-MS, 8890B/8860B GCs, Altura columns) are off to strong starts, driving share gains.
Management is advancing AI both internally and with customers: they have an AI-enabled supply chain control tower, an enterprise AI strategy with OpenAI and BCGX, and partnerships with biotech companies automating drug discovery workflows on Agilent platforms. The differentiation is applying AI to proprietary data and scientific knowledge to redesign workflows.
Book-to-build came in above 1 for the 10th consecutive quarter; instrument orders met or grew faster than revenue. China grew 9% ahead of flat guidance with the momentum continuing into year-end, and pharma reshoring orders have started to flow (five of top 10 pharma booked in Q3). Diagnostics and clinical underlying orders grew at a robust double-digit rate, giving confidence in durability.
Management raised full-year EPS guidance partly on tariff refunds, but expects fourth-quarter flattish growth in the specialty CDMO business due to timing of customer regulatory submissions. They expect revenue contributions from pharma reshoring to build in fiscal 2027, with Train C capacity ramping to full over six to eight quarters, and are investing in digital/AI capabilities.
Management expressed strong confidence, highlighting sustained momentum, share gains, and raised guidance for the full year on both top and bottom lines.
Timing of this capacity expansion will limit near-term CDMO revenue growth and could pressure margins as the company invests ahead of the ramp.
“Train C coming online, and that's in the spring. and so as you think about that, that'll start generating revenue in that period and then over the next six to eight quarters, that's when we expect it to ramp up to full capacity.”
“The funnel now exceeds $60 million. The 9500's value proposition, increased productivity, lower cost of ownership, and ease of use is resonating strongly while supporting customer technology migration”
“we have secured reshoring orders from five of the top 10 pharma companies in the world in the third quarter alone. We continue to expect more meaningful order benefit from pharma reshoring around year end.”
| Metric | Period | Range | Midpoint | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | FY2026 Q4 | $1.71–$1.74 | $1.73 | GUIDED |
| EPS | FY2026 | $6.18–$6.21 | $6.20 | RAISED |
| Revenue | FY2026 Q4 | $1.98B–$2B | $1.99B | GUIDED |
| Revenue | FY2026 | $7.49B–$7.51B | $7.5B | RAISED |
| Issued | Metric | Target | Guide | Actual | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 Q2 | EPS | FY2026 Q3 | $1.48–$1.50 | $1.56 | Met / beat |
| FY2026 Q2 | Revenue | FY2026 Q3 | $1.83B–$1.85B | $1.88B | Met / beat |
| FY2026 Q1 | EPS | FY2026 Q2 | $1.39–$1.42 | $1.49 | Met / beat |
| FY2026 Q1 | Revenue | FY2026 Q2 | $1.79B–$1.82B | $1.835B | Met / beat |
| FY2025 Q4 | EPS | FY2026 Q1 | $1.35–$1.38 | $1.36 | Met / beat |
| FY2025 Q4 | Revenue | FY2026 Q1 | $1.79B–$1.82B | $1.798B | Met / beat |
Agilent's contract with the TSA is expanding beyond initial scope, validating its security detection technology.
“Following the initial $9 million contract win with the TSA we mentioned earlier this year, we've seen use cases expand”
… of the Omnis family continues to bring laboratory automation to an entirely new customer set. Moreover, the recent close of the buyer care transaction in late June builds on that momentum by expanding our clinically focused antibody menu and complementing our pathology offering. The business is off to a solid start and the integration is progressing well. Turning to spectroscopy, we continue to build momentum with the RAM and Insight series. Following the initial $9 million contract win with the TSA we mentioned earlier this year, we've seen use cases expand from airport security checkpoints at FIFA World Cup host cities to other cities in the US. Both the new InSight BRT and InSight 300 aviation security products have achieved major milestones this quarter and are now certified to variants of the latest US and European detection standards respectively. Both systems contain truly first-of-its-kind technology to enhance safety and streamline operations at security checkpoints. We continue to be optimistic that the opportunity could expand through further RFPs in the US and adoption in Europe and beyond. Turning to the instrument performance in Q3, we had another very strong …
Agilent's order book for its new 9500 ICP-MS already exceeds $60 million, with a strong funnel from semiconductor customers, indicating faster-than-expected adoption and market share gains in semiconductor metrology. — Strong early demand for a key new product suggests Agilent is gaining share in the semiconductor supply chain, a key growth area.
“The AI capital investment build-out in China plays directly into restraints in GC, GC-MS, and spectroscopy.”
… as a trusted strategic partner for these CXOs. Second, we are seeing an inflection in contract testing laboratory volumes, particularly testing activity related to food safety and materials exports. Demand for our differentiated PFAS testing solutions is strong. Our complete end-to-end workflows from sample preparation and analytical instrumentation through application and regulatory expertise is enabling us to win against the competition. And finally, the AI capital investment build-out in China plays directly into restraints in GC, GC-MS, and spectroscopy. The recently launched 9500 triple quad ICP-MS is off to a strong start in the region, with semiconductor supply chain customers already contributing to a robust order funnel. Last quarter, we announced the launch of our China Innovation Center and are now in the early phase of lab automation software co-development, with a leading commercial testing customer ahead of building a fully automated lab. We are also partnering with a cutting-edge local biotech company that is leveraging AI to automate drug discovery workflows on our instrument platforms. These partnerships are generating positive momentum for us in the region, …
Agilent's pharma reshoring orders are arriving sooner than expected, with orders from five top-10 pharma companies already booked, suggesting the 'reshoring' narrative is converting to tangible revenue earlier than anticipated, with instruments and services being fully incremental. — Incremental demand from reshoring could provide a multi-year growth tailwind, especially for instrument sales, ahead of expectations.
“Our GLP-1 momentum continues, delivering more than 70% year-over-year growth per quarter, with a robust contribution from both our CDMO and analytical lab businesses.”
… Infinity Tree LC. These achievements reflect the collective efforts of the teams across Agilent to strengthen our sustainability programs. I'm delighted to see that progress recognized externally. Now, let me share some additional details on our Q3 results, starting with our end markets. As I mentioned earlier, Pharma grew 12% this quarter. Within Pharma, Biotech grew double digits, and Small Molecule grew mid-single digits. Our GLP-1 momentum continues, delivering more than 70% year-over-year growth per quarter, with a robust contribution from both our CDMO and analytical lab businesses. CAM grew 7% and Environmental Forensics delivered 5% growth, both exceeding our expectations. Importantly, PFAS grew 20% despite a low double-digit compare. Diagnostics and clinical grew 6%, just shy of our expectations. Robust double-digit order growth in pathology in the quarter gives us confidence in the underlying demand and health of this business. Food was roughly flat in the quarter, ahead of our expectations for a low single-digit decline. Academic and government, our smallest end market, declined 3%, modestly below our expectations. However, on an ex-China basis, the end market was …
Agilent is partnering with OpenAI to integrate AI into its commercial operations, signaling a deepening relationship.
“We mobilized our partnership with OpenAI and BCGX, advanced solutions focused on the commercial customer journey”
… the same disciplined approach to building our next generation digital and AI capabilities. Our digital initiative continues to make it easier for customers to do business with Agilent while lowering our cost per transaction. Customers' overall experience on Agilent.com continues to track ahead of our targets, with new online orders growing in the low teens and Q3. Starting last quarter, we have moved our enterprise AI strategy into execution. We mobilized our partnership with OpenAI and BCGX, advanced solutions focused on the commercial customer journey, and continued building the Agilent AI Center of Excellence to help us move from individual initiatives to repeatable enterprise delivery. While AI capability is advancing quickly and becoming broadly available, our differentiation lies in how we apply it. Combining AI with Agilent's proprietary data, scientific knowledge, and customer understanding enables us to redesign workflows, improving how decisions are made and how work gets done. This is how we move beyond isolated productivity gains to create durable value that is difficult to replicate. We are leveraging AI to transform software development to create highly …
Agilent's order book for its new 9500 ICP-MS already exceeds $60 million, with a strong funnel from semiconductor customers, indicating faster-than-expected adoption and market share gains in semiconductor metrology. — Strong early demand for a key new product suggests Agilent is gaining share in the semiconductor supply chain, a key growth area.
… June are all off to a strong start. The 9500 ICP-MS, the flagship GC systems, and our Altura column family are tracking ahead of plan simultaneously. This shows our innovation engine working across the portfolio, reducing our reliance on any single-star product. We are seeing strong demand across all regions for the 9500, and already have exceeded our ramp to volume target despite beginning shipments in late July. The funnel now exceeds $60 million. The 9500's value proposition, increased productivity, lower cost of ownership, and ease of use is resonating strongly while supporting customer technology migration from single-quad to triple-quad systems. We've also received excellent customer feedback on our new 8890B and 8860B flagship GCs. Customers are excited about the productivity and GC assist intelligence features on the systems, which started to ship in July. Orders over the first two months exceeded expectations by more than 2x, with strong demand across all regions. Turning to our consumers portfolio, we further expanded the Altura family at ASMS by launching columns for analytical workflows and protein peptide therapeutics, large oligonucleotides, gene therapy and …
Agilent's pharma reshoring orders are arriving sooner than expected, with orders from five top-10 pharma companies already booked, suggesting the 'reshoring' narrative is converting to tangible revenue earlier than anticipated, with instruments and services being fully incremental. — Incremental demand from reshoring could provide a multi-year growth tailwind, especially for instrument sales, ahead of expectations.
… of active construction sites following the 17 pharmaceutical manufacturer agreements announced under the Trump administration's MFN program reinforces our top-down view of the pharma reshoring opportunity we laid out last year. Moreover, our commercial teams are now engaging in meaningful dialogue with most of these customers, three quarters of whom happen to be part of our strategic customer program. In fact, we have secured reshoring orders from five of the top 10 pharma companies in the world in the third quarter alone. We continue to expect more meaningful order benefit from pharma reshoring around year end. with revenue contributions building in fiscal 2027 and beyond. Further, the reshoring opportunity for Agilent extends beyond pharma to semiconductor, a key differentiator for us compared to our peers. Semiconductor customers continue to invest in regional supply chain capacity, which in combination with AI CapEx build-out should underpin the robust growth in our advanced materials and market over the medium term. The Ignite operating system is powering our commercial and operations organization, as well as accelerating innovation momentum. The scope and impact of …