Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) was the target of a significant decline in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,470,000 shares, a decline of 6.9% from the November 30th total of 4,800,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 759,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.9 days. Currently, 10.1% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling at Azenta

In other news, Director William L. Cornog bought 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $39.60 per share, with a total value of $495,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 14,755 shares in the company, valued at $584,298. This represents a 554.32 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Herman Cueto sold 1,595 shares of Azenta 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 directly owns 24,604 shares in the company, valued at $1,074,702.72. This trade represents a 6.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,018 shares of company stock worth $126,689 over the last three months. 10.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Azenta in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $352,000. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its position in shares of Azenta by 150.8% during the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 24,748 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,199,000 after acquiring an additional 14,880 shares during the last quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new position in Azenta during the third quarter valued at $1,726,000. State Street Corp grew its stake in Azenta by 0.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,686,993 shares of the company’s stock valued at $81,718,000 after acquiring an additional 6,398 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp increased its holdings in Azenta by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 59,241 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,870,000 after acquiring an additional 3,601 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.08% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on AZTA shares. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of 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 cut their price target on shares of Azenta from $69.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Stephens raised shares of Azenta from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.60.

Azenta Price Performance

NASDAQ AZTA opened at $49.95 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.82 and a beta of 1.49. Azenta has a 1-year low of $38.82 and a 1-year high of $69.16. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $45.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $49.24.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $170.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $169.66 million. Azenta had a negative net margin of 25.01% and a positive return on equity of 1.03%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.13 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Azenta will post 0.41 EPS for the current year.

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.