Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) Hits New 1-Year Low – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $23.04 and last traded at $23.04, with a volume of 96066 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $24.30.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Azenta in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Azenta from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Azenta from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Wall Street Zen cut Azenta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Azenta in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.33.

Azenta Price Performance

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.36. The stock has a market cap of $1.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.84 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 (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.11 by ($0.02). Azenta had a positive return on equity of 1.43% and a negative net margin of 10.34%.The company had revenue of $148.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $146.89 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.08 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Azenta, Inc. will post 0.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Azenta declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 14.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd grew its holdings in Azenta by 2,067.6% during the 4th quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 802 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in shares of Azenta by 54.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 832 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 292 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Azenta by 249.5% during the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 726 shares during the period. Osaic Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of Azenta by 44.9% in the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,242 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Azenta by 141.2% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,585 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 928 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.