JPMorgan Chase & Co. Grows Stock Holdings in Azenta, Inc. $AZTA

JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) by 7.6% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 473,315 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 33,393 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Azenta were worth $13,594,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its stake in Azenta by 192.0% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Azenta by 38.8% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,064,464 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,769,000 after purchasing an additional 297,353 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Azenta by 49.3% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 722,576 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,241,000 after purchasing an additional 238,444 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Azenta by 214.8% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 340,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,798,000 after purchasing an additional 232,405 shares during the period. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC grew its holdings in shares of Azenta by 65.6% in the second quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 530,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,314,000 after purchasing an additional 209,877 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.08% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on AZTA shares. Raymond James Financial increased their target price on shares of Azenta from $35.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Azenta in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $44.00 target price on shares of Azenta in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Azenta from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Azenta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Azenta presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.33.

Azenta Trading Up 2.4%

Shares of AZTA stock opened at $25.13 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $33.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.42. The company has a market cap of $1.16 billion, a P/E ratio of -18.61 and a beta of 1.39. Azenta, Inc. has a 12 month low of $23.77 and a 12 month high of $45.26.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last posted its 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). The business had revenue of $148.64 million during 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.08 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Azenta, Inc. will post 0.53 EPS for the current year.

Azenta announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, December 10th that authorizes the company to buyback $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 14.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are 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.