Stephens Investment Management Group LLC Sells 47,991 Shares of Azenta, Inc. $AZTA

Stephens Investment Management Group LLC cut its position in Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) by 4.5% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,024,048 shares of the company’s stock after selling 47,991 shares during the quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC’s holdings in Azenta were worth $21,638,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in AZTA. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Azenta by 249.4% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 96,602 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,213,000 after acquiring an additional 68,955 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new stake in shares of Azenta in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $36,803,000. Congress Asset Management Co. bought a new stake in shares of Azenta during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $42,755,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Azenta by 7.8% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,388,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,347,000 after purchasing an additional 99,897 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Azenta by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 473,315 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,594,000 after purchasing an additional 33,393 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.08% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on AZTA shares. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on shares of Azenta from $44.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings cut Azenta from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.50.

Azenta Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AZTA opened at $25.84 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $22.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.91. Azenta, Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.93 and a 1 year high of $41.73. The firm has a market cap of $1.19 billion, a PE ratio of -6.53 and a beta of 1.37.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.16). The business had revenue of $144.79 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $148.47 million. Azenta had a positive return on equity of 1.23% and a negative net margin of 30.49%.The company’s revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.01 earnings per share.

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.