Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the seven analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $40.40.

AZTA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on shares of Azenta from $44.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Azenta from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Azenta

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Azenta by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,538,946 shares of the company’s stock valued at $150,965,000 after purchasing an additional 99,588 shares during the period. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Azenta by 116.1% in the 1st quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,844,546 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,105,000 after purchasing an additional 1,528,145 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in Azenta by 9.9% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,866,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,081,000 after buying an additional 167,969 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Azenta by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,732,755 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,631,000 after buying an additional 24,062 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Azenta by 16.3% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,613,914 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,183,000 after buying an additional 225,867 shares during the period. 99.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Azenta Stock Performance

Shares of AZTA opened at $28.28 on Thursday. Azenta has a fifty-two week low of $15.93 and a fifty-two week high of $41.73. The business has a 50-day moving average of $24.34 and a 200 day moving average of $25.86. The firm has a market cap of $1.30 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.14 and a beta of 1.37.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.12 by ($0.16). The business had revenue of $144.79 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $148.47 million. Azenta had a negative net margin of 30.49% and a positive return on equity of 1.23%. Azenta’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.01 earnings per share.

Azenta Company Profile

Azenta, Inc (NASDAQ: AZTA) is a life sciences technology company specializing in sample management, cryogenic storage and genomic services for research and clinical applications. Formerly the Life Sciences division of Brooks Automation, Azenta provides integrated solutions that enable customers to store, track and analyze biological samples with high levels of automation, data integrity and efficiency. Its offerings span automated storage systems, biorepository management software and end?to?end sample tracking workflows.

In addition to hardware and informatics platforms for sample storage, Azenta’s Genomics business delivers next?generation sequencing (NGS), DNA synthesis, and molecular biology services.