Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) Receives $42.17 Average Target Price from Analysts

Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the eight research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $41.3333.

AZTA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $44.00 target price on shares of Azenta in a report on Wednesday. Raymond James Financial raised their price objective on shares of Azenta from $35.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Azenta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Azenta in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Azenta in a research note on Monday, December 22nd.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Azenta

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in Azenta by 54.1% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 832 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 292 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Azenta by 249.5% in the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 726 shares in the last quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Azenta by 44.9% in the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Azenta during the third quarter valued at about $57,000. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of Azenta by 113.5% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 1,009 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.08% of the company’s stock.

Azenta Price Performance

Shares of AZTA opened at $28.72 on Thursday. Azenta has a one year low of $23.91 and a one year high of $54.20. The company has a market cap of $1.32 billion, a PE ratio of -21.27 and a beta of 1.35. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $36.18 and a 200-day moving average of $32.83.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.11 by ($0.02). Azenta had a positive return on equity of 1.43% and a negative net margin of 10.34%.The firm had revenue of $148.64 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $146.89 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.08 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Azenta will post 0.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Azenta declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 14.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.