Royce & Associates LP Has $9.88 Million Position in Azenta, Inc. $AZTA

Royce & Associates LP cut its stake in shares of Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) by 49.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 343,934 shares of the company’s stock after selling 331,064 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP owned approximately 0.75% of Azenta worth $9,878,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Azenta by 249.5% during the 3rd 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. raised its stake in Azenta by 44.9% during the 2nd 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 period. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in Azenta in the third quarter worth approximately $57,000. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Azenta by 113.5% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 1,009 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its stake in Azenta by 79.3% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,148 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 950 shares during the period. 99.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Research upgraded Azenta from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Evercore lowered their price objective on shares of Azenta from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Azenta from $35.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report 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, February 7th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Azenta in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Four equities 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, Azenta has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.33.

Azenta Price Performance

NASDAQ AZTA opened at $24.54 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $33.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.47. The firm has a market cap of $1.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -18.18 and a beta of 1.39. Azenta, Inc. has a 1 year low of $23.77 and a 1 year high of $45.26.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by ($0.02). Azenta had a negative net margin of 10.34% and a positive return on equity of 1.43%. The firm had revenue of $148.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $146.89 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.08 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Azenta, Inc. 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 buyback $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 14.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.