Azenta’s (AZTA) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $44.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 110.43% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Azenta from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Azenta in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Evercore reduced their price target on shares of Azenta from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Wall Street Zen cut Azenta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 7th. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Azenta in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Four 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.com, Azenta presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.33.

Azenta Stock Performance

Shares of Azenta stock opened at $20.91 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.00. Azenta has a fifty-two week low of $20.45 and a fifty-two week high of $41.73. The company has a market cap of $963.11 million, a P/E ratio of -15.49 and a beta of 1.39.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share 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 business 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 firm earned $0.08 EPS. Azenta’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Azenta will post 0.53 EPS for the current year.

Azenta announced that its board has initiated 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 generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Azenta

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of Azenta by 54.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 832 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 292 shares during the period. Osaic Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in Azenta by 44.9% during 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. CWM LLC grew its position in Azenta by 27.3% in the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,822 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Azenta by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,884 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,000 after acquiring an additional 438 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Azenta by 6.2% in the third quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 7,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $221,000 after purchasing an additional 451 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.08% of the company’s stock.

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.