Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC Raises Position in Azenta, Inc. $AZTA

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) by 7.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,388,047 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 99,897 shares during the quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC owned 3.02% of Azenta worth $46,347,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC purchased a new position in shares of Azenta during the 1st quarter worth approximately $435,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Azenta by 214.8% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 340,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,798,000 after buying an additional 232,405 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in Azenta by 10.5% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,482 shares of the company’s stock worth $225,000 after acquiring an additional 618 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in Azenta by 17.8% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 201,337 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,974,000 after acquiring an additional 30,492 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning purchased a new position in Azenta in the second quarter worth $270,000. 99.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore lowered their price target on shares of Azenta from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Azenta in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Azenta from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Azenta in a report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Azenta from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.33.

Azenta Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ AZTA opened at $21.18 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $27.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.23. Azenta, Inc. has a 52 week low of $19.87 and a 52 week high of $41.73. The stock has a market cap of $975.55 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.69 and a beta of 1.47.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $148.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $146.89 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.08 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Azenta, Inc. will post 0.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Azenta announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board 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.