1,106,536 Shares in Azenta, Inc. $AZTA Bought by Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA purchased a new position in shares of Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 1,106,536 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,803,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in Azenta by 41.6% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,698,562 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,783,000 after acquiring an additional 499,216 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Azenta by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,388,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,347,000 after acquiring an additional 99,897 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co. bought a new stake in Azenta in the fourth quarter worth about $42,755,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC raised its position in Azenta by 19.7% in the third quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 965,862 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,740,000 after acquiring an additional 158,689 shares during the period. Finally, American Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Azenta by 5.6% in the third quarter. American Capital Management Inc. now owns 829,320 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,818,000 after acquiring an additional 43,996 shares during the period. 99.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Azenta Stock Up 4.0%

NASDAQ AZTA opened at $24.26 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $24.59 and its 200-day moving average is $30.77. Azenta, Inc. has a 12-month low of $19.87 and a 12-month high of $41.73. The firm has a market cap of $1.12 billion, a P/E ratio of -17.97 and a beta of 1.47.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last posted 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 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 the consensus estimate of $146.89 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.08 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Azenta, Inc. will post 0.53 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on AZTA. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Azenta from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Azenta in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Wall Street Zen lowered Azenta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Azenta in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Azenta from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.33.

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.