Edgestream Partners L.P. Makes New $1.79 Million Investment in Azenta, Inc. $AZTA

Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 84,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,790,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Azenta by 116.1% during the 1st quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,844,546 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,105,000 after acquiring an additional 1,528,145 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new position in Azenta in the 4th quarter worth about $36,803,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted 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 worth $48,783,000 after purchasing an additional 499,216 shares in the last quarter. Scopia Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Azenta during the third quarter worth approximately $14,026,000. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its holdings in Azenta by 192.0% in the second quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 713,939 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,975,000 after purchasing an additional 469,447 shares during the period. 99.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Azenta Trading Up 6.2%

Shares of Azenta stock opened at $29.88 on Tuesday. Azenta, Inc. has a twelve month low of $15.93 and a twelve month high of $41.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.38 billion, a PE ratio of -7.55 and a beta of 1.36. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $24.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $25.67.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.04) 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 firm had revenue of $144.79 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $148.47 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.01 earnings per share. Azenta’s quarterly revenue was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on AZTA shares. 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 report on Wednesday, July 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.40.

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.