The company has a beta of 1.2489. Let's try to break down what Agilent's beta means in this case. Agilent Technologies returns are very sensitive to returns on the market. As the market goes up or down, Agilent Technologies is expected to follow. The beta indicator helps investors understand whether Agilent Technologies moves in the same direction as the rest of the market, and how volatile (i.e., risky) it is compared to the market (i.e., selected benchmark). In other words, if Agilent deviates very little from the market, it does not add much risk to the portfolio, but it also doesn't increase the expected returns.