Each year in our annual forecast issue, IBO chooses a company of the year. The company is one whose performance financially and operationally, and development of technology in the previous year distinguishes it among industry participants, and indicates strong fundamentals, as well as an enviable position in the lab instrument and product market.

IBO’s 2017 company of the year is Agilent Technologies. For the fiscal year ending October 31, 2017, Agilent’s revenues grew 6.4% to $4,472 million, operating profit skyrocketed 36.7% to $841 million and net income jumped 48.1% to $684 million, surpassing fiscal 2016’s growth rates in all three metrics.

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The gains were the result of a three-year effort to increase profitability and position the company for future growth, as Agilent decreased costs and restructured the company. As a result, the company accomplished its goal of 22% non-GAAP operating margin by 2017, up from 20.4% a year ago.

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In fact, Agilent has grown sales since fiscal 2015 while keeping costs constant. The company’s fiscal 2017 revenue growth was its fastest since fiscal 2010. Sales growth in fiscal 2017 was balanced across all three Agilent businesses, the Life Sciences & Applied Markets Group, CrossLab Group, and Diagnostics & Genomics Group, with each Group’s sales growing 5% or faster.

Last fiscal year’s results were also the culmination of a series of investments and strategic decisions under new CEO Mike McMullen (see IBO 9/30/14). These included 2014’s formation of the CrossLab Group, a dedicated consumables and service segment (see IBO 11/30/14). This Group reported fiscal 2017 sales of $1,531 million, up 7.8%, including 11% growth in Asia Pacific. Operational changes in recent years also included the closure of the unprofitable NMR business (see IBO 10/15/14) and the divestment of the XRD business (see IBO 3/31/15).

New investments have also paid off. Changes include an expansion of Agilent’s diagnostics business, entry into new markets such as cell analysis (see IBO 9/15/15) and Raman spectroscopy (see IBO 7/15/17), and additions to successful franchises in NGS sample preparation and LC/MS, among other key product launches. In 2017, the company debuted the Agilent SureSelect^{XT HS} target enrichment research solution (see IBO 7/31/17), the latest generation of  the company’s technology for the fast growing NGS sample preparation market. It also announced the Ultivo triple quad LC/MS, an LC/MS with a significantly smaller footprint that opens up new application areas (see IBO 7/15/17).

Agilent has steadily advanced its goals in the diagnostics market, a key area of future growth, which includes pathology, companion diagnostics and molecular diagnostics. In 2017, the company closed its acquisition of Multiplicom (see IBO 12/31/16), further investing in molecular assays and expanding its NGS offering. Also in 2017, the company gained US FDA clearance for its microarray-based GenetiSure Dx Postnatal Assay (see IBO 9/15/17), the first CGH assay approved by the US FDA for diagnostic use. Agilent additionally introduced the AriaDx Real-Time PCR System in Europe. Both products reflect the company’s success in bringing its research technologies to the clinical markets.