GW&K Investment Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Azenta, Inc. $AZTA

GW&K Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) by 37.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,550,101 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 419,630 shares during the period. GW&K Investment Management LLC owned about 3.37% of Azenta worth $51,556,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AZTA. Cerity Partners LLC bought a new stake in Azenta in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $541,000. LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Azenta by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 40,315 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,341,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075 shares during the last quarter. CenterBook Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Azenta in the fourth quarter worth $865,000. Arrowpoint Investment Partners Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in Azenta during the 4th quarter valued at $616,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Azenta by 31.2% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 626,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,831,000 after buying an additional 148,904 shares during the last quarter. 99.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AZTA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Azenta from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on shares of Azenta from $44.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.50.

Azenta Trading Up 0.0%

NASDAQ:AZTA opened at $22.72 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $21.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.38. The stock has a market cap of $1.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.74 and a beta of 1.39. Azenta, Inc. has a 12 month low of $15.93 and a 12 month high of $41.73.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations of $148.47 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.01 EPS. Azenta’s quarterly revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

Azenta 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.