Keysight Technologies, Inc.
The instrument shop behind every 800G and 1.6T transceiver. Upside above consensus.
1. Executive summary
Keysight Technologies is the de facto leader in test and measurement, and it sits at the chokepoint of every transition in high-speed electrical and optical communications. Every 100G, 200G, and 224G per lane PAM4 transceiver, every 400ZR, 800ZR, and 1.6T and emerging 2.4T coherent module, and every 1.6T Ethernet switch fabric on the planet gets qualified against a Keysight reference. The company traces a direct line from Hewlett-Packard’s 1939 founding, through the 1999 Agilent spin-off, to its standalone NYSE listing in November 2014 under the ticker KEYS 0.00%↑.1
FY25 closed on October 31 with $5.37B in revenue, up 8% on the prior year, $7.16 of non-GAAP EPS, and $1.28B of free cash flow.2 The bigger story is the Spirent deal, which closed two weeks earlier at $1.46B all-in (the headline number you remember is $1.5B, that was the original announce).3 To get it through, Keysight had to hand Spirent’s high-speed Ethernet, network security, and channel emulation lines to Viavi for $425M in cash.3 The DOJ’s complaint puts Keysight and Spirent at 85% of the U.S. high-speed Ethernet test market, more than 60% of network security test, and more than 50% of RF channel emulation.4
Q1 FY26 printed on February 23 and it was a clean beat. $1.60B in revenue, up 23%, $1.645B in orders, up 30%, and $2.17 of non-GAAP EPS against a $2.00 consensus. Management took FY26 revenue and EPS growth guidance to just above 20%, which is well clear of the long-run 5-7% framework.5 On the call they pointed at four drivers: AI scale-up and scale-out, higher speeds in Ethernet-based AI networking, more optical content per system, and the semi plus A&D cycles.6 The stock is up roughly 65% year-to-date as of mid-May.7
