Azenta, Inc. $AZTA Shares Bought by Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) by 90,073.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 170,427 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 170,238 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Azenta were worth $5,668,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AZTA. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Azenta during the first quarter worth about $435,000. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Azenta by 214.8% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 340,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,798,000 after purchasing an additional 232,405 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of Azenta by 10.5% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,482 shares of the company’s stock worth $225,000 after purchasing an additional 618 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Azenta by 17.8% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 201,337 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,974,000 after purchasing an additional 30,492 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning acquired a new position in shares of Azenta in the second quarter worth about $270,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on AZTA shares. Zacks Research upgraded Azenta from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Azenta from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Azenta from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Wall Street Zen cut Azenta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Finally, Evercore cut their price target on Azenta from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.50.

Azenta Trading Up 3.3%

NASDAQ:AZTA opened at $20.18 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $930.10 million, a PE ratio of -5.10 and a beta of 1.43. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $21.59 and a 200-day moving average of $29.03. Azenta, Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.93 and a 52 week high of $41.73.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.12 by ($0.16). Azenta had a negative net margin of 30.49% and a positive return on equity of 1.23%. The company had revenue of $144.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $148.47 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.01 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

Azenta Company Profile

Azenta, Inc (NASDAQ: AZTA) is a life sciences technology company specializing in sample management, cryogenic storage and genomic services for research and clinical applications. Formerly the Life Sciences division of Brooks Automation, Azenta provides integrated solutions that enable customers to store, track and analyze biological samples with high levels of automation, data integrity and efficiency. Its offerings span automated storage systems, biorepository management software and end‐to‐end sample tracking workflows.

In addition to hardware and informatics platforms for sample storage, Azenta’s Genomics business delivers next‐generation sequencing (NGS), DNA synthesis, and molecular biology services.