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

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) had its price target lowered by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $69.00 to $55.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 29.03% from the stock’s previous close.

Separately, Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Azenta from $53.00 to $50.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Azenta presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.60.

Azenta Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AZTA opened at $42.63 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.54. Azenta has a fifty-two week low of $40.24 and a fifty-two week high of $69.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.09 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.35 and a beta of 1.48.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.08. Azenta had a positive return on equity of 0.98% and a negative net margin of 25.01%. The company had revenue of $170.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $169.66 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.13 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Azenta will post 0.42 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Azenta news, CFO Herman Cueto sold 1,595 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 24,604 shares in the company, valued at $1,074,702.72. This represents a 6.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.77% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Redwood Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Azenta in the 1st quarter valued at $1,497,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. raised its stake in Azenta by 618.2% in the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 58,644 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,535,000 after buying an additional 50,479 shares in the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board purchased a new stake in Azenta during the 1st quarter worth about $1,401,000. Wesbanco Bank Inc. boosted its position in shares of Azenta by 72.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 31,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,502,000 after acquiring an additional 13,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Azenta by 66.3% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 69,955 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,681,000 after acquiring an additional 27,882 shares during the last quarter. 99.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.