Zacks Research Downgrades Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS) to Hold

Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS) was downgraded by Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. UBS Group raised their price objective on Keysight Technologies from $230.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Keysight Technologies in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Keysight Technologies from $225.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Keysight Technologies in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Truist Financial started coverage on Keysight Technologies in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “hold” rating and a $310.00 target price for the company. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Keysight Technologies presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $304.17.

Keysight Technologies Stock Up 2.8%

Shares of NYSE KEYS opened at $290.22 on Tuesday. Keysight Technologies has a 52-week low of $121.43 and a 52-week high of $317.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 2.02 and a current ratio of 2.60. The stock has a market cap of $49.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $261.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $213.95.

Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 23rd. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.17. Keysight Technologies had a net margin of 16.84% and a return on equity of 19.26%. The company had revenue of $1.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.82 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Keysight Technologies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 8.590- EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.270-2.330 EPS. Analysts expect that Keysight Technologies will post 6.32 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Keysight Technologies

In other news, CFO Neil Dougherty sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.37, for a total transaction of $596,740.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 125,272 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,377,406.64. This represents a 1.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Satish Dhanasekaran sold 1,667 shares of Keysight Technologies stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $500,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 122,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,719,400. This represents a 1.34% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 40,334 shares of company stock valued at $11,533,230 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Keysight Technologies

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in KEYS. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Keysight Technologies by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,525,694 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $4,373,806,000 after purchasing an additional 101,856 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Keysight Technologies by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,419,811 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,539,532,000 after buying an additional 85,693 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Keysight Technologies by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,191,895 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,664,511,000 after buying an additional 200,279 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its stake in shares of Keysight Technologies by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,870,268 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $851,525,000 after buying an additional 160,728 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Keysight Technologies by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,940,767 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $800,732,000 after acquiring an additional 240,058 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.58% of the company’s stock.

About Keysight Technologies

Keysight Technologies is a global provider of electronic design, test, measurement and optimization solutions for communications, electronics and related industries. The company was formed as a corporate spin-off from Agilent Technologies in 2014; its origins trace back to the electronic measurement business that was part of Hewlett?Packard before Agilent. Keysight develops hardware and software used throughout the product development lifecycle, from design and simulation to prototype validation and manufacturing test.

Keysight’s product portfolio includes electronic test and measurement instruments such as oscilloscopes, network and spectrum analyzers, signal generators, vector network analyzers and modular PXI-based systems, together with software platforms for simulation, automated test and data analysis.