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

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) had its target price cut by Needham & Company LLC from $69.00 to $55.00 in a report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

Separately, Evercore ISI cut their target price on Azenta from $53.00 to $50.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock 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, Azenta presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.60.

Azenta Stock Down 2.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ AZTA opened at $41.51 on Wednesday. Azenta has a twelve month low of $40.24 and a twelve month high of $69.16. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $45.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $50.46. The company has a market capitalization of $2.03 billion, a PE ratio of -13.98 and a beta of 1.48.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Azenta

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Azenta

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Azenta in the second quarter worth $30,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Azenta by 20.0% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,537 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the period. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Azenta by 150.9% in the second quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 1,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,000 after acquiring an additional 955 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Azenta in the first quarter worth $130,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Azenta by 24.7% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,381 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,000 after acquiring an additional 471 shares during the period. 99.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.