Needham & Company LLC Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) Stock Price

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) had its price objective trimmed by Needham & Company LLC from $69.00 to $55.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the stock.

Separately, Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Azenta from $53.00 to $50.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Azenta presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.60.

Azenta Stock Performance

Shares of AZTA opened at $41.51 on Wednesday. Azenta has a fifty-two week low of $40.24 and a fifty-two week high of $69.16. The firm has a market cap of $2.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.98 and a beta of 1.48. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $45.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $50.46.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.08. Azenta had a negative net margin of 25.01% and a positive return on equity of 1.03%. The company had revenue of $170.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $169.66 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.13 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Azenta will post 0.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Azenta

In other Azenta news, CFO Herman Cueto sold 1,595 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.68, for a total transaction of $69,669.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 24,604 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,074,702.72. This represents a 6.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.77% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Azenta

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZTA. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Azenta by 16.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,970,964 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,331,000 after buying an additional 421,719 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Azenta by 16.4% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,298,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,917,000 after purchasing an additional 183,040 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Azenta by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 5,298,040 shares of the company’s stock worth $278,783,000 after purchasing an additional 100,826 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its holdings in Azenta by 433.6% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 73,055 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,844,000 after purchasing an additional 59,364 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP raised its holdings in Azenta by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 739,977 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,844,000 after purchasing an additional 53,584 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.08% of the company’s stock.

Azenta Company Profile

Azenta, Inc provides biological and chemical compound sample exploration and management solutions for the life sciences market in North America, Africa, China, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates in two reportable segments, Life Sciences Products and Life Sciences Services.