Keysight Technologies Falls 6.1% Despite Strong Earnings, Suggesting Sell-the-News Pressure

Keysight Technologies (KEYS) is down 6.1% today. Here is some analysis on what might have caused this price movement.

Analysis: The move appears counterintuitive because Keysight’s latest quarterly results looked strong, with revenue, earnings, and fourth-quarter guidance all coming in above the company’s prior outlook and broadly ahead of expectations. With the stock having rallied sharply in 2026 and options already implying a sizable post-earnings swing, today’s decline may reflect sell-the-news profit-taking and broader pressure across chip and AI-linked technology names rather than a clearly negative company-specific surprise.

Details:

Keysight had scheduled its fiscal third-quarter 2026 report for August 18, 2026, and market chatter after the release pointed to a clear earnings beat with strong year-over-year growth.

Post-earnings figures circulating in the market indicated fiscal third-quarter revenue of about $1.85 billion and adjusted earnings per share of about $3.07, both comfortably above consensus expectations.

Market summaries also indicated fiscal fourth-quarter guidance of roughly $1.93 billion to $1.95 billion in revenue, suggesting management did not issue the kind of outlook cut that would normally explain a drop of this size.

This could be because investors had already priced in a strong quarter after a big run in the shares, while a wider semiconductor and AI-related selloff weighed on sentiment across the group.

Sources:

Keysight Technologies Investor Relations, SEC, Investing.com

Disclaimer: This price movement analysis was generated with the help of AI. Please double-check the information provided for mistakes.

$KEYS Insider Trading Activity

$KEYS insiders have traded $KEYS stock on the open market 11 times in the past 6 months. Of those trades, 0 have been purchases and 11 have been sales.

Here’s a breakdown of recent trading of $KEYS stock by insiders over the last 6 months:

RONALD S. NERSESIAN sold 30,000 shares for an estimated $8,578,920
SATISH DHANASEKARAN (President and CEO) has made 0 purchases and 3 sales selling 3,841 shares for an estimated $1,166,719.
INGRID A ESTRADA (SVP) has made 0 purchases and 2 sales selling 4,000 shares for an estimated $1,157,100.
JAMES CULLEN sold 3,000 shares for an estimated $1,039,740
NEIL DOUGHERTY (EVP and CFO) sold 2,000 shares for an estimated $596,740
JEFFREY K LI (SVP and Secretary) sold 2,000 shares for an estimated $594,380
JO ANN JUSKIE (SVP) sold 1,000 shares for an estimated $304,423
RICHARD P HAMADA sold 870 shares for an estimated $239,929

To track insider transactions, check out Quiver Quantitative's insider trading dashboard. You can access data on insider stock transactions through the Quiver Quantitative API insider transaction endpoint.

$KEYS Hedge Fund Activity

We have seen 661 institutional investors add shares of $KEYS stock to their portfolio, and 517 decrease their positions in their most recent quarter.

Here are some of the largest recent moves:

PRICE T ROWE ASSOCIATES INC /MD/ removed 5,324,777 shares (-35.6%) from their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $1,864,044,684
BOSTON PARTNERS removed 2,484,352 shares (-88.4%) from their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $869,697,104
BLACKROCK, INC. added 1,473,391 shares (+7.9%) to their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $515,789,987
FMR LLC added 1,200,533 shares (+101.9%) to their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $420,270,587
SIXTH STREET PARTNERS MANAGEMENT COMPANY, L.P. added 1,101,512 shares (+inf%) to their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $385,606,305
VICTORY CAPITAL MANAGEMENT INC removed 905,372 shares (-39.3%) from their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $316,943,576
JPMORGAN CHASE & CO added 663,951 shares (+inf%) to their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $232,429,326

To track hedge funds' stock portfolios, check out Quiver Quantitative's institutional holdings dashboard. You can access data on hedge funds moves and 13F filings through the Quiver Quantitative API 13F endpoint.

$KEYS Government Contracts

We have seen $37,614,983 of award payments to $KEYS over the last year.

Here are some of the awards which we have have seen pay out the most over the last year:

THIS DO W912CH26F0140 TO CONTRACT W31P4Q23D0009, IS TO ORDER 546 CM-523/U, 546 TRAINING CDS, WITH SUPPORTIN...: $12,100,152
PXIE VECTOR NETWORK ANALYZER LEASE WITH OPTION TO PURCHASE: $1,148,475
RAPID ACQUISITION OF A RADIO FREQUENCY THREAT SIMULATOR 4: $903,970

To track government contracts to publicy traded companies, check out Quiver Quantitative's government contracts dashboard. You can access data on government contracts through the Quiver Quantitative API government contracts endpoint.

$KEYS Price Targets

Multiple analysts have issued price targets for $KEYS recently. We have seen 10 analysts offer price targets for $KEYS in the last 6 months, with a median target of $388.5.

Here are some recent targets:

Matthew Niknam from Truist Securities set a target price of $376.0 on 05/22/2026
Atif Malik from Citigroup set a target price of $396.0 on 05/21/2026
Samik Chatterjee from JP Morgan set a target price of $390.0 on 05/21/2026
Richard Eastman from Baird set a target price of $385.0 on 05/20/2026
Tim Long from Barclays set a target price of $387.0 on 05/20/2026
Aaron Rakers from Wells Fargo set a target price of $390.0 on 05/20/2026
Meta Marshall from Morgan Stanley set a target price of $350.0 on 05/20/2026

This article is not financial advice. See Quiver Quantitative's disclaimers for more information. Note that there may be inaccuracies due to mistakes in ticker-mapping, and other anomalies.