Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) Rating Lowered to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

AZTA has been the subject of several other research reports. Raymond James Financial upped their target price on shares of Azenta from $35.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Zacks Research raised shares of Azenta from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Azenta from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Evercore cut their target price on Azenta from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Azenta in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Azenta presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.33.

Azenta Stock Performance

Shares of AZTA opened at $28.72 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.32 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.27 and a beta of 1.35. Azenta has a 52 week low of $23.91 and a 52 week high of $54.20. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $36.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.82.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.11 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $148.64 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $146.89 million. Azenta had a negative net margin of 10.34% and a positive return on equity of 1.43%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.08 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Azenta will post 0.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Azenta announced that its Board of Directors has authorized 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 repurchase up to 14.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Azenta

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZTA. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Azenta by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,538,946 shares of the company’s stock worth $150,965,000 after purchasing an additional 99,588 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Azenta by 41.6% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,698,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,783,000 after buying an additional 499,216 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of Azenta by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,388,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,347,000 after buying an additional 99,897 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co. bought a new stake in shares of Azenta in the 4th quarter valued at about $42,755,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA purchased a new stake in Azenta during the 4th quarter valued at about $36,803,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.08% of the company’s stock.

About Azenta

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.