Legal & General Group Plc Invests $2.45 Million in Azenta, Inc. $AZTA

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 96,123 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,453,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Azenta in the second quarter valued at about $192,152,000. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Azenta by 116.1% during the first quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,844,546 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,105,000 after buying an additional 1,528,145 shares in the last quarter. Front Street Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Azenta in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,212,000. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in Azenta by 41.6% in the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,698,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,783,000 after buying an additional 499,216 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Scopia Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Azenta in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $14,026,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.08% of the company’s stock.

Azenta Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AZTA opened at $31.33 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $29.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.37 billion, a PE ratio of -11.35 and a beta of 1.39. Azenta, Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.93 and a 52 week high of $41.73.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.05. Azenta had a positive return on equity of 1.18% and a negative net margin of 20.63%.The firm had revenue of $161.18 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $149.31 million.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on AZTA. Weiss Ratings raised Azenta from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Azenta from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Azenta presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.20.

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.