Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) Short Interest Down 7.4% in November

Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,020,000 shares, a decrease of 7.4% from the October 31st total of 4,340,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 764,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.3 days. Currently, 8.4% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Herman Cueto sold 1,595 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.68, for a total value of $69,669.60. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 24,604 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,074,702.72. This trade represents a 6.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO John Marotta bought 12,717 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $39.48 per share, with a total value of $502,067.16. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 99,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,932,681.76. This represents a 14.63 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,018 shares of company stock valued at $126,689 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Azenta

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Azenta in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $130,000. Wesbanco Bank Inc. boosted its position in shares of Azenta by 56.5% in the 2nd quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 18,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $947,000 after buying an additional 6,500 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Azenta in the 2nd quarter valued at about $611,000. Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in Azenta by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 110,948 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,838,000 after acquiring an additional 594 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IMA Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in Azenta during the second quarter worth about $1,486,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AZTA has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Azenta from $53.00 to $50.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price target on shares of Azenta from $69.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Three equities 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, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.60.

Azenta Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Azenta stock traded up $0.40 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $46.61. 216,602 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 558,678. The business has a 50-day moving average of $44.95 and a 200-day moving average of $49.87. Azenta has a 1 year low of $38.82 and a 1 year high of $69.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.67 and a beta of 1.48.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $170.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $169.66 million. Azenta had a positive return on equity of 1.03% and a negative net margin of 25.01%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.13 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Azenta will post 0.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.