Front Street Capital Management Inc. Buys 603,757 Shares of Azenta, Inc. $AZTA

Front Street Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) by 211.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 889,009 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 603,757 shares during the quarter. Azenta makes up 2.4% of Front Street Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Front Street Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Azenta were worth $18,785,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AZTA. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its position in Azenta by 2,067.6% during the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 802 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Azenta by 54.1% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 832 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 292 shares during the period. State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in Azenta in the 1st quarter valued at about $38,000. Osaic Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in Azenta by 44.9% during the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,242 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares during the period. Finally, Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its position in Azenta by 98.0% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 689 shares during the last quarter. 99.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AZTA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Azenta from $44.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Azenta from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.40.

Azenta Stock Performance

Shares of AZTA opened at $28.80 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.27 and a beta of 1.37. Azenta, Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.93 and a 52 week high of $41.73. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $24.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.80.

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

Azenta 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.