Agilent Technologies Inc, the testing and measurement business set to be spun out from Hewlett-Packard Co, will eventually trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol A, making it one of an elite group of companies that have a lone letter to designate their stock. Following its planned initial public offering later in the year, Agilent will be one of only 22 companies to have what some see as a sign of prestige among ticker symbols. It will join the likes of Citigroup (C), Ford Motor Co (F) and AT&T Corp (T).
The A ticker became available earlier this year when former holder Astra AB merged with another firm. I, M, Q and V are the only lone symbols that are currently inactive. Agilent, which was reported as a discontinued operation in HP’s latest regulatory filing, saw revenue up 11% in the third quarter to $2.09bn, and posted earnings that more than doubled to $157m from $67m in the year-ago quarter.
