John Marotta Acquires 12,717 Shares of Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) Stock

Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) CEO John Marotta purchased 12,717 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $39.48 per share, for a total transaction of $502,067.16. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 99,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,932,681.76. The trade was a 14.63 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Azenta Stock Up 1.3 %

NASDAQ AZTA traded up $0.54 on Tuesday, reaching $40.91. The company had a trading volume of 659,801 shares, compared to its average volume of 503,027. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.00 billion, a PE ratio of -13.59 and a beta of 1.48. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $45.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.35. Azenta, Inc. has a 12 month low of $38.82 and a 12 month high of $69.16.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.08. Azenta had a negative net margin of 25.01% and a positive return on equity of 1.03%. The company had revenue of $170.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $169.66 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.13 EPS. Azenta’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Azenta, Inc. will post 0.4 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AZTA. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on shares of Azenta from $69.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of 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 issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Azenta has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.60.

Institutional Trading of Azenta

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AZTA. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Azenta by 16.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,970,964 shares of the company’s stock worth $156,331,000 after buying an additional 421,719 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Azenta by 16.4% during the 3rd 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. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Azenta by 1.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 100,826 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its holdings in Azenta by 433.6% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 73,055 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,844,000 after purchasing an additional 59,364 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP grew its holdings in Azenta by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 739,977 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,844,000 after purchasing an additional 53,584 shares during the last quarter. 99.08% of the stock is currently 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.