Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, or Nasdaq under the symbol “AZTA.”
Number of Holders
As of November 14, 2022, there were 492 holders of record of our common stock.
Dividend Policy
Dividends are declared at the discretion of our Board of Directors and depend on actual cash flow from operations, our financial condition, capital requirements and any other factors our Board of Directors may consider relevant. Future dividend declarations, as well as the record and payment dates for such dividends, will be determined by our Board of Directors on a quarterly basis.
Since the completion of the sale of the semiconductor automation business on February 1, 2022, we have not paid a quarterly dividend and do not have plans to pay any dividends at this time.
Comparative Stock Performance
The following graph compares the cumulative total shareholder return (assuming reinvestment of dividends) from investing $100 on September 30, 2017, and plotted at the last trading day of each of the fiscal years ended September 30, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, in each of (i) our Common Stock; (ii) the Nasdaq/NYSE American/NYSE Index of companies; and (iii) a peer group for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2022.
The 2022 peer Group for the year ended September 30, 2022 is comprised of Angiodynamics Inc, Caredx Inc, Certara Inc, Haemonetics Corp, Icu Medical Inc, Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corp, Maravai Lifesciences Holdings Inc, Medpace Holdings Inc, Neogenomics Inc, Nuvasive Inc, Orasure Technologies Inc, Repligen Corp, Sotera Health Co, and Varex Imaging Corp. The peer group for 2022 was updated to remove semiconductor automation companies, as we no longer serve that market following the sale of the semiconductor automation business on February 1, 2022.
The 2021 peer Group for the year ended September 30, 2022 is comprised of Advanced Energy Industries Inc, Axcelis Technologies Inc, Bio Rad Laboratories Inc, Bruker Corp, Coherent Corp, Entegris Inc, Formfactor Inc, Haemonetics Corp, Mks Instruments Inc, Novanta Inc, Onto Innovation Inc, Ultra Clean Holdings Inc, Varex Imaging Corp, and Veeco Instruments Inc.
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The stock price performance on the graph below is not necessarily indicative of future price performance.
9/30/2017
9/30/2018
9/30/2019
9/30/2020
9/30/2021
9/30/2022
Azenta, Inc.
$
100.00
$
116.96
$
125.14
$
157.85
$
350.95
$
147.10
Nasdaq/NYSE American/NYSE
100.00
104.37
94.39
89.29
110.75
84.98
2021 Peer Group
100.00
113.97
131.79
157.47
243.29
164.14
2022 Peer Group
100.00
149.60
142.24
157.37
232.57
129.51
The information included under the heading “Comparative Stock Performance” in Item 5 of Form 10-K shall not be deemed to be “soliciting material” or subject to Regulation 14A, shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or under the Exchange Act.
Issuer’s Purchases of Equity Securities
On September 29, 2015, our Board of Directors approved a share repurchase program for up to $50 million of our common stock, or the 2015 Repurchase Program. On November 4, 2022, our Board of Directors terminated the 2015 Repurchase Program and approved a new share repurchase program authorizing the repurchase of up to $1.5 billion of our common stock, or the 2022 Repurchase Program. Repurchases under the 2022 Repurchase Program may be made in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions (including under an accelerated share repurchase, or ASR, agreement), or by other means, including through the use of trading plans intended to qualify under Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, subject to market and business conditions, legal requirements, and
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other factors. We are not obligated to acquire any particular amount of common stock under the 2022 Repurchase Program, and share repurchases may be commenced or suspended at any time at our discretion. As part of the 2022 Repurchase Program, we expect to enter into an ASR agreement for the repurchase of up to $500 million of our common stock. There were no repurchases of our common stock during the fiscal year ended September 30, 2022 and no such repurchases thereafter under the 2015 Repurchase Program.
Item 6. [Reserved]
Text extracted from the filing as submitted to EDGAR. Formatting, tables and exhibits are simplified for reading; the original document is authoritative for anything you rely on.