Is Azenta Life Sciences (AZTA) A Smart Long-Term Investment Pick?

Artisan Partners, a high value-added investment management firm, published its ‘Artisan Mid Cap Fund’ fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of -0.72% was recorded by its Investor Class: ARTMX, -0.68% by its Advisor Class: APDMX, and -0.66% by its Institutional Class: APHMX, in the fourth quarter of 2021, all underperforming the Russell Midcap® Growth Index that delivered a 2.85% return, and the Russell Midcap® Index that was up by 6.44% for the same period. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

Artisan Mid Cap Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ: AZTA) and discussed its stance on the firm. Azenta, Inc. is a Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based semiconductor manufacturing company with a $6.3 billion market capitalization. AZTA delivered a -18.44% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 3.64%. The stock closed at $84.10 per share on February 22, 2022.

Here is what Artisan Mid Cap Fund has to say about Azenta, Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“We started new investment campaign in Azenta Life Sciences. Azenta provides a broad range of products and services focused on biological sample management. The company is well positioned to benefit from the rapid rise in blood, tissue and cell samples being collected, analyzed and stored by pharmaceutical, diagnostic, medical centers and academic researchers. It provides storage systems and consumables for customers storing their own samples and also offers outsourced sample storage and analysis (which given Azenta’s scale and capabilities, can be a more efficient solution). In addition, we see an important internal change underway at the company, as it’s in the process of divesting its large legacy semiconductor business to focus entirely on life sciences. This divestiture is expected to yield $2bn in proceeds, which Azenta can use to supplement its organic growth via complementary acquisitions.”

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Our calculations show that Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ: AZTA) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. AZTA was in 33 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 29 funds in the previous quarter. Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ: AZTA) delivered a -27.86% return in the past 3 months.

In December 2021, we published an article that includes AZTA in the 5 Stocks Redditors are Buying for 2022. You can find more than 100 investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.