Padraig McDonnell
President & Chief Executive Officer at Agilent Technologies
Thanks, Parmeet. Good afternoon, everyone and thank you for joining today's call. The Agilent team executed well in the third quarter and posted solid results, delivering better-than-expected revenue and earnings. Revenue of $1.578 billion, declined 4.4%, an improvement of 300 basis points from Q2, reflecting the steady improvement in the market. Operating margin of 27.4% improved sequentially, as the actions we announced last quarter start to deliver and we remain on-track to deliver the incremental annualized savings of $100 million by the end of the fiscal year.
Earnings per share of $1.32 is $0.04 above the high end of guidance. As a result of our strong Q3 performance, we are raising our guidance at the midpoint for both revenue and EPS and we continue to make investments in our most promising growth opportunities that I referenced in our Q2 call. We are investing in our digital ecosystem to further enhance our differentiated customer experience, plus we are mobilizing the organization to accelerate value creation through strategic transformation initiatives, driving margin expansion and growth and increasing our execution capabilities.
Separately in the quarter, we were excited to announce two acquisitions that demonstrate our focus on biopharma and our digital ecosystem, which I'll talk about in a moment. As you know well, the pace of change is faster than ever. Our markets, customers and competitors are not standing still, neither are we. We are accelerating our pace of innovation and execution, so we can add to and capitalize on opportunities in front of us.
We are sharply focused on key growth vectors, including biopharma, PFAS and Advanced Materials. I continue to meet and connect with employees, customers and shareholders around the globe to listen to their perspectives on how we should build on our strengths and move Agilent forward. The entire Agilent team is clear on what is vital to the company's future, becoming even more customer focused and even more nimble to continue to win in the marketplace and add value to customers and shareholders.
We are evolving our strategy, adapting quickly to market trends and changes, while accelerating our pace of innovation in areas of greatest return for long-term growth. We're excited to announce that you'll hear more about these topics and our transformation at our Investor Day we have planned in New York on December 17th.
Now let's talk further about our Q3 results. All our end markets except academia and government, which is our smallest, ended the quarter better-than-expected. Our largest market pharma declined high-single-digits, slightly better than our expectations and while biopharma continues to be pressured, we are seeing relatively better performance in Small Molecule. Our leadership in providing workflow solutions for PFAS continued to show strong performance in the environmental markets. Geographically, Europe exceeded expectations led by small-molecule pharma, as well as continued strength in environmental.
Our other regions performed roughly in-line with expectations. While capital equipment budgets remain constrained, we continue to see good lab activity in Q3 with services plus Consumables growing mid-single digits. When looking at our performance by business unit, the Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group reported $782 million in revenue, down 7%, while the instrument side of the business remains constrained, it was encouraging that our instrument book-to-bill was again greater than one.
The Group saw a decline across all regions and most end-markets with low single-digit growth in Environmental & Forensics. The Consumables continue to be a bright spot, growing by mid-single digit. The LSAG team also was busy innovating with the introduction of the 8850 GC that helps customers reach their sustainability goals by delivering answers efficiently, while using up to 13% [Phonetic] less power than other GC's and has a much smaller footprint.
Moving on to the Agilent CrossLab Group, the business delivered revenue of $411 million for the quarter, up mid-single digit. ACG grew in every region except China, where we were down modestly year-on-year, but showed meaningful improvement versus last quarter. Once again, we drove double-digit growth in service contracts, which represented nearly 70% of the total business. And beyond another quarter of solid revenue growth, ACG also delivered a record operating margin of 34%, demonstrating that the resiliency and strength of the recurring revenue business continues despite the constrained capital equipment environment.
The continued strength of our business is a testament to our strategy of increasing the connect rates on our instruments and the ongoing value we are providing to our customers in helping them reach their productivity goals. The Diagnostics & Genomics Group posted $385 million in revenue, representing an 8% decline. Pathology grew mid-single digits globally and was offset by declines in Cell Analysis, NASD and genomics. NASD stepped down sequentially in Q3 as expected and we are on track for NASD's revenues to step-up sequentially in Q4.
In the face of a constrained capex environment, the Agilent team has remained consistent in putting our customers first and fostering deeper relationships with them. We continue to execute well and be disciplined, while investing in high-growth opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, we were thrilled to announce two acquisitions, that speak to our focus on biopharma and increasing recurring revenue, as well as on strengthening the digital ecosystem for Agilent customers. In late July, we signed a definitive agreement to acquire BIOVECTRA, a leading specialized contract development and manufacturing organization.
The Canada-based company builds on Agilent's capabilities in oligonucleotides and CRISPR therapeutics by expanding our portfolio of services. BIOVECTRA adds rapidly growing modalities of microbial fermentation, antibody-drug conjugates and high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredients. It also brings world-class capabilities that when combined with NASD enables us to deliver customers a complete gene editing solution. The company delivered more than $110 million in revenue during the calendar year 2023 and expects double-digit revenue growth this year.
The BIOVECTRA acquisition remains on-track to be closed by the end of the year and we're looking-forward to welcoming the BIOVECTRA team to Agilent. At the end of the quarter, we also announced the acquisition of California-based Sigsense, a start-up that uses artificial intelligence and power monitoring to help customers optimize their lab operations. Sigsense Technology already is available to our customers through CrossLab Connect, a suite of digital applications that improve lab performance. A hearty welcome to the Sigsense team who already is part of Agilent.
During the quarter, we released our annual ESG report, which showcases a large and growing portfolio of products that help our customers reach their sustainability goals. Instruments certified with the My GreenLab ACT label now accounts for 40% of all instrument revenue and we continue to regularly release products like the new 8850 GC with environmental benefits. We are also proud that we have recently ranked in the top 20 of Time Magazine's 500 Most Sustainable companies in the world. Bob will now provide the details on our results, as well as our outlook for the remainder of the year. After Bob delivers his comments, I will be back for some closing remarks.
Over to you, Bob.
