The latest Market Talks covering the Health Care sector. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.

0019 GMT - Ramsay Health Care's strong 1H result doesn't persuade Barrenjoey to turn bullish on the stock. Revenue growth of 8.7% in Ramsay's Australian private-hospital business was the stand out in the result, analyst Saul Hadassin says. Barrenjoey raises its price target by 13% to A$38.25/share. That reflects 2%-5% EPS upgrades across FY 2026-2028 and revised assumptions around capital expenditure. "We remain neutral rated, with the stock trading on a near-term price-to-earnings of 28X, and think the market has already priced in a sizeable, medium-term recovery in Australian earnings," Barrenjoey says. Ramsay's average PE multiple over 10 years is 26X. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

1911 GMT - While Agilent Technologies backed its full-year guidance, "it no longer has the same conservative feel to it" after the company's latest quarterly results were a mixed bag, UBS analysts say in a note. The company's key growth drivers remain intact, including recent instrument launches and improving demand in China, but its performance was hurt by severe weather in January and weakness with U.S. academic and government customers, the analysts say. Additionally, year-over-year comparisons will get more challenging in the second half of the year, the analysts say. "We have slightly tuned down our estimates accordingly," they say. Agilent is off 5%. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

1727 GMT - Agilent Technologies CEO Padraig McDonnell says a winter storm in the U.S. hurt topline in the latest quarter, hitting during the last week of January, a critical week for shipments. "This is typically the busiest shipping week of the quarter," McDonnell says during a call with analysts. McDonnell says the weather meant Agilent's logistics providers couldn't ship products from its main logistics center in Memphis, Tenn. for three days, posing a $10 million hit to revenue. He says the majority of that hit was recovered at the beginning of February. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

0944 GMT - Although Hikma's 2025 results are broadly in line with consensus, the midpoint of its guidance implies downgrades of around 5% to consensus core operating profit, RBC Capital Markets analysts Charles Weston and Natalia Webster say in a note. The pharmaceutical company anticipates top-line growth of 2% to 4%, which points to 2026 core revenue of about $3.45 billion at the midpoint or around 2% below current consensus, the analysts say. Core operating profit expectations are in a range of $720 million to $770 million, or $745 million at the midpoint and 5% below current consensus, RBC says. Shares are down 15% at 13.98 pounds and have fallen 35% over the past 12 months. (anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 27, 2026 04:20 ET (09:20 GMT)

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