Townsquare Capital LLC Sells 7,052 Shares of Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA)

Townsquare Capital LLC cut its stake in Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) by 11.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 51,990 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,052 shares during the quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in Azenta were worth $2,518,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AZTA. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Azenta by 16.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,970,964 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,331,000 after acquiring an additional 421,719 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of Azenta by 16.4% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,298,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,917,000 after purchasing an additional 183,040 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Azenta by 1.9% in 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 in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its holdings in Azenta by 433.6% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 73,055 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,844,000 after purchasing an additional 59,364 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP grew its position in Azenta by 7.8% in the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 739,977 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,844,000 after purchasing an additional 53,584 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.08% of the company’s stock.

Azenta Trading Down 1.9 %

AZTA opened at $46.21 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $44.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.89. Azenta, Inc. has a 1-year low of $38.82 and a 1-year high of $69.16. The stock has a market cap of $2.26 billion, a PE ratio of -15.56 and a beta of 1.48.

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.08. Azenta had a negative net margin of 25.01% and a positive return on equity of 1.03%. The company had revenue of $170.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $169.66 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.13 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Azenta, Inc. will post 0.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Herman Cueto sold 712 shares of Azenta stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.07, for a total transaction of $28,529.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 23,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $957,352.44. This trade represents a 2.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director William L. Cornog bought 12,500 shares of Azenta stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $39.60 per share, with a total value of $495,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 14,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $584,298. This trade represents a 554.32 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 3,018 shares of company stock worth $126,689 over the last three months. Insiders own 1.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on AZTA. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of Azenta from $69.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Azenta from $53.00 to $50.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.60.

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.