Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) Short Interest Update

Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,380,000 shares, a growth of 5.3% from the August 31st total of 5,110,000 shares. Currently, 11.3% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 590,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 9.1 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Azenta by 16.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,970,964 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,331,000 after buying an additional 421,719 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Azenta by 1.9% during the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 5,298,040 shares of the company’s stock worth $278,783,000 after purchasing an additional 100,826 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group increased its stake in shares of Azenta by 14.6% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 625,515 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,746,000 after purchasing an additional 79,913 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in shares of Azenta by 433.6% in the second 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 period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Azenta by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,115,816 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,714,000 after buying an additional 56,387 shares in the last quarter. 99.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AZTA. Evercore ISI cut their target price on Azenta from $53.00 to $50.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price objective on shares of Azenta in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.40.

Azenta Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of AZTA opened at $47.50 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $51.37 and a 200 day moving average of $53.11. The company has a market capitalization of $2.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.53 and a beta of 1.47. Azenta has a 12 month low of $44.00 and a 12 month high of $69.16.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $173.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $166.14 million. Azenta had a positive return on equity of 0.89% and a negative net margin of 23.66%. The business’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.13 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Azenta will post 0.33 earnings per share 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.