Azenta, Inc. $AZTA Shares Bought by Rice Hall James & Associates LLC

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC raised its stake in Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) by 64.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 65,395 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,738 shares during the period. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in Azenta were worth $2,175,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Meros Investment Management LP raised its position in Azenta by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Meros Investment Management LP now owns 166,845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,549,000 after purchasing an additional 6,900 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in Azenta by 84.2% in the 4th quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 148,244 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,931,000 after purchasing an additional 67,749 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC acquired a new stake in Azenta in the 4th quarter valued at about $258,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC raised its position in Azenta by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 556,008 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,493,000 after purchasing an additional 14,213 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bridgewater Associates LP acquired a new stake in Azenta in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,593,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on AZTA. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price target on Azenta from $44.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings raised Azenta from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Azenta presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.50.

Azenta Stock Performance

AZTA opened at $23.13 on Wednesday. Azenta, Inc. has a one year low of $15.93 and a one year high of $41.73. The company has a market cap of $1.07 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.84 and a beta of 1.39. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.94.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.16). Azenta had a negative net margin of 30.49% and a positive return on equity of 1.23%. The business had revenue of $144.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $148.47 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.01 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

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.