Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) Price Target Cut to $40.00 by Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) had its price objective reduced by Jefferies Financial Group from $42.00 to $40.00 in a research report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on AZTA. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 price objective on shares of Azenta in a report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Azenta in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Zacks Research raised shares of Azenta from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Azenta in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Azenta from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Azenta presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $42.17.

Azenta Stock Performance

AZTA opened at $28.49 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $36.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.88. The firm has a market cap of $1.31 billion, a PE ratio of -21.92 and a beta of 1.35. Azenta has a twelve month low of $23.91 and a twelve month high of $55.63.

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

Azenta announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, December 10th that allows the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 14.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Azenta

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZTA. Congress Asset Management Co. bought a new position in shares of Azenta in the 4th quarter valued at about $42,755,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new position in Azenta in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,803,000. Millennium Management LLC lifted 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 acquiring an additional 499,216 shares during the last quarter. Scopia Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Azenta during the third quarter worth approximately $14,026,000. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Azenta by 192.0% during the second quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 713,939 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,975,000 after acquiring an additional 469,447 shares during the period. 99.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

More Azenta News

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.