Azenta’s (AZTA) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) in a research report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $44.00 target price on the stock.

AZTA has been the subject of a number of other research reports. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Azenta in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Wall Street Zen raised Azenta from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group raised Azenta from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $30.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Raymond James Financial upped their target price on Azenta from $35.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Azenta in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $42.17.

Azenta Price Performance

Shares of AZTA opened at $28.49 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $36.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.88. The stock has a market cap of $1.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.92 and a beta of 1.35. Azenta has a one year low of $23.91 and a one year high of $55.63.

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

Azenta announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy up to 14.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Azenta

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZTA. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 292 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Azenta by 249.5% in the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 726 shares in the last quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. increased its position 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 buying an additional 385 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in Azenta during the third quarter valued at about $57,000. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of Azenta by 113.5% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 1,009 shares during the last quarter. 99.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Azenta

Here are the key news stories impacting Azenta this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Needham reaffirmed its “buy” rating and set a $44.00 price target (largest upside among recent notes), which supports upside expectations. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Azenta filed its formal Q1 fiscal 2026 press release detailing results and materials; investors should review guidance/commentary in the release and slide deck for clarity on demand trends. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short-interest data for early February appears to show zero shares (likely a reporting/data anomaly); treat this item as unreliable until confirmed by an exchange filing.
• Negative Sentiment: Q1 earnings missed EPS expectations: reported $0.09 vs. consensus $0.11 (a $0.02 shortfall). Revenue was a modest beat ($148.64M vs. $146.89M), but margins remain under pressure and revenue growth was very low year-over-year. The EPS miss is the main near-term negative catalyst. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Jefferies trimmed its price target from $42 to $40 (but kept a “buy” rating), which reduces the analyst-driven upside and may have contributed to today’s selling pressure. Article Title

Azenta Company 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.