Azenta, Inc. $AZTA Shares Acquired by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) by 249.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 96,602 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 68,955 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Azenta were worth $3,213,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AZTA. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new stake in Azenta in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,640,000. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Azenta in the 2nd quarter valued at about $128,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Azenta by 80.0% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 268,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,538,000 after buying an additional 119,397 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Azenta by 5.6% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 440,835 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,661,000 after buying an additional 23,238 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in shares of Azenta by 18.7% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 114,581 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,527,000 after buying an additional 18,077 shares during the period. 99.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on AZTA shares. Evercore decreased their price target on shares of Azenta from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Azenta in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Azenta from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 price objective on shares of Azenta in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Azenta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Four research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Azenta currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.33.

Azenta Price Performance

AZTA stock opened at $19.90 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $28.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.44. The stock has a market cap of $916.59 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.74 and a beta of 1.39. Azenta, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.87 and a fifty-two week high of $41.73.

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

Azenta announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to buyback $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 14.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors 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.