Stock Repurchase Program Declared by Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA)

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, December 10th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 14.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AZTA has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on Azenta from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 21st. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Azenta from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $38.00 in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Azenta in a research note on Monday. Raymond James Financial upped their target price on Azenta from $35.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Azenta from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.60.

Azenta Stock Up 2.7%

Azenta stock traded up $1.00 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $37.50. 1,243,485 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 744,349. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -28.85 and a beta of 1.29. Azenta has a 12 month low of $23.91 and a 12 month high of $55.63. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.13.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 21st. The company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $159.19 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.76 million. Azenta had a positive return on equity of 1.40% and a negative net margin of 10.01%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.18 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Azenta will post 0.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Azenta

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.