Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on AZTA. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Azenta in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Azenta in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $44.00 price objective on shares of Azenta in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Zacks Research raised Azenta from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Evercore reduced their target price on shares of Azenta from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.33.

Azenta Stock Up 3.8%

AZTA opened at $29.80 on Friday. Azenta has a 12-month low of $23.91 and a 12-month high of $52.62. The business has a 50 day moving average of $36.08 and a 200-day moving average of $32.79. The stock has a market cap of $1.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.07 and a beta of 1.35.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last posted its quarterly 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 negative net margin of 10.34% and a positive return on equity of 1.43%. The business had revenue of $148.64 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $146.89 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.08 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Azenta will post 0.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Azenta declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 14.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Azenta

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 worth $150,965,000 after acquiring an additional 99,588 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in Azenta by 41.6% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,698,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,783,000 after purchasing an additional 499,216 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Azenta by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,388,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,347,000 after purchasing an additional 99,897 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Azenta in the 4th quarter valued at $42,755,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new position in shares of Azenta in the 4th quarter valued at $36,803,000. 99.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.