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

Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eight brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $41.3333.

AZTA has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore cut their price objective on shares of Azenta from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 5th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Azenta in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Azenta in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Azenta from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 price objective on shares of Azenta in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th.

Azenta Stock Down 2.5%

NASDAQ AZTA opened at $21.31 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $981.54 million, a PE ratio of -15.79 and a beta of 1.39. Azenta has a 52 week low of $19.93 and a 52 week high of $41.73. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $29.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.48.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by ($0.02). Azenta had a positive return on equity of 1.43% and a negative net margin of 10.34%.The business had revenue of $148.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $146.89 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.08 EPS. Azenta’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Azenta will post 0.53 EPS for the current year.

Azenta declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase up to 14.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Azenta

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AZTA. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Azenta by 98.0% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,392 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 689 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Azenta in the fourth quarter worth $491,000. MidFirst Bank bought a new stake in Azenta during the fourth quarter valued at $187,000. Kera Capital Partners Inc. boosted its stake in Azenta by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Kera Capital Partners Inc. now owns 11,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $367,000 after buying an additional 787 shares during the period. Finally, Front Street Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Azenta by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Front Street Capital Management Inc. now owns 285,252 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,487,000 after buying an additional 35,270 shares in the last quarter. 99.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.