Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) Raised to Hold at Zacks Research

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) was upgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on AZTA. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Azenta in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Evercore ISI set a $50.00 price target on Azenta in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Raymond James Financial upped their target price on Azenta from $35.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Azenta from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Azenta in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.83.

Azenta Trading Down 2.4%

AZTA stock traded down $0.95 during trading on Monday, reaching $39.19. 146,232 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 499,923. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.14 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $36.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.69. Azenta has a 1 year low of $23.91 and a 1 year high of $55.63.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 21st. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.01. Azenta had a positive return on equity of 1.40% and a negative net margin of 10.01%.The firm had revenue of $159.19 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.76 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.18 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Azenta will post 0.53 EPS for the current year.

Azenta announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, December 10th that allows the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 14.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Azenta

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH raised its position in Azenta by 30.5% during the fourth quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 50,298 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,673,000 after buying an additional 11,746 shares during the period. Evergreen Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Azenta in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $203,000. CWM LLC boosted its position in shares of Azenta by 27.3% during the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,822 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of Azenta by 54.1% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 832 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 292 shares during the period. Finally, Gibbs Wealth Management bought a new position in Azenta during the 4th quarter valued at about $350,000. 99.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Azenta

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.