Stephens Investment Management Group LLC Increases Position in Azenta, Inc. $AZTA

Stephens Investment Management Group LLC increased its stake in Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) by 11.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,072,039 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 106,177 shares during the period. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC owned about 2.33% of Azenta worth $35,656,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in Azenta by 90,073.0% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 170,427 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,668,000 after acquiring an additional 170,238 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Azenta by 38.8% during the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,670 shares of the company’s stock valued at $554,000 after buying an additional 4,656 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp purchased a new stake in Azenta during the fourth quarter valued at about $287,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Azenta by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,538,946 shares of the company’s stock valued at $150,965,000 after buying an additional 99,588 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH boosted its position in Azenta by 30.5% during the fourth quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 50,298 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,673,000 after buying an additional 11,746 shares during the period. 99.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on AZTA. Evercore cut 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. 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 cut their price target 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. Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on shares of Azenta from $44.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Azenta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Azenta presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.50.

Azenta Trading Down 4.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:AZTA opened at $16.02 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $738.36 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.05 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $22.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $29.46. Azenta, Inc. has a 12 month low of $15.95 and a 12 month high of $41.73.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.12 by ($0.16). The firm had revenue of $144.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $148.47 million. Azenta had a negative net margin of 30.49% and a positive return on equity of 1.23%. The business’s revenue was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.01 earnings per share.

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.