Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC Has $60.10 Million Position in Azenta, Inc. $AZTA

Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) by 116.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,844,546 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,528,145 shares during the quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC owned 6.18% of Azenta worth $60,105,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AZTA. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its holdings in Azenta by 2,067.6% in the 4th quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 802 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 765 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in Azenta by 54.1% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 832 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 292 shares during the period. Osaic Holdings Inc. increased its position in Azenta by 44.9% in the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 385 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Azenta by 98.0% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,392 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 689 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Azenta by 141.2% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,585 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 928 shares during the last quarter. 99.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on AZTA shares. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of Azenta from $44.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings lowered Azenta from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Monday. Four investment 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.50.

Azenta Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AZTA opened at $26.19 on Thursday. Azenta, Inc. has a 52-week low of $15.93 and a 52-week high of $41.73. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $22.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.04. The company has a market capitalization of $1.21 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.61 and a beta of 1.37.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.16). The firm had revenue of $144.79 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $148.47 million. Azenta had a positive return on equity of 1.23% and a negative net margin of 30.49%.Azenta’s quarterly revenue was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.01 EPS.

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.