Needham & Company LLC Cuts Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) Price Target to $55.00

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) had its price objective lowered by Needham & Company LLC from $69.00 to $55.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target points to a potential upside of 19.59% from the stock’s previous close.

Separately, Evercore ISI reduced their target price on 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.60.

Azenta Price Performance

Azenta stock opened at $45.99 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $45.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.64. The company has a market capitalization of $2.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.37 and a beta of 1.48. Azenta has a 12-month low of $40.24 and a 12-month high of $69.16.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $170.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $169.66 million. Azenta had a positive return on equity of 0.89% and a negative net margin of 23.66%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.13 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Azenta will post 0.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Azenta

In other Azenta news, CFO Herman Cueto sold 1,595 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.68, for a total transaction of $69,669.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 24,604 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,074,702.72. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.77% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Azenta

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AZTA. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $278,783,000 after buying an additional 100,826 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Azenta by 16.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,970,964 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,331,000 after purchasing an additional 421,719 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Azenta by 16.4% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,298,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,917,000 after purchasing an additional 183,040 shares during the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP raised its position in shares of Azenta by 7.8% during 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 during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Azenta by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 515,393 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,120,000 after purchasing an additional 18,680 shares during the last quarter. 99.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.