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 13, 2023, there were 476 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, 2018, and plotted at the last trading day of each of the fiscal years ended September 30, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, 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, 2023.
The 2023 peer group for the year ended September 30, 2023 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, Orasure Technologies Inc, Repligen Corp, Sotera Health Co, and Varex Imaging Corp. Nuvasive Inc. was removed from the Company’s peer group in 2023 as the result of its sale to another company in 2023.
The stock price performance on the graph below is not necessarily indicative of future price performance.
24
Table of Contents
9/30/2018
9/30/2019
9/30/2020
9/30/2021
9/30/2022
9/30/2023
Azenta, Inc.
$
100.00
$
106.99
$
134.96
$
300.06
$
125.77
$
147.28
Nasdaq/NYSE American/NYSE
100.00
97.10
97.93
125.19
98.02
118.20
Peer Group
100.00
95.85
110.03
164.73
90.53
87.86
The information included under the heading “Comparative Stock Performance” in this Item 5 of this Annual Report on 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 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.
25
Table of Contents
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
The following provides information about our fourth quarter 2023 repurchases of our common stock:
Total
Total Number of Shares
Approximate Dollar Value
Number of
Average
Purchased As Part of
Of Shares That May
Shares
Price Paid
Publicly Announced
Yet Be Purchased
Purchased
Per Share
Plans or Programs
(in millions)
Period of Repurchase
Repurchase Program
(#) (1)
($) (1)
(1)
($)
July 1 - 31, 2023
Open market repurchase
1,481,897
$
46.00
15,526,586
$
760
August 1-31, 2023
Open market repurchase
1,399,128
51.58
16,925,714
688
September 1-30, 2023
Open market repurchase
529,297
49.13
17,455,011
662
Total
3,410,322
$
48.78
On November 4, 2022, our Board of Directors approved a share repurchase authorization for the repurchase of up to $1.5 billion of our common stock (the “2022 Repurchase Authorization”) and terminated our previously authorized $50.0 million share repurchase authorization. In November 2022, as part of the 2022 Repurchase Authorization, we entered into an accelerated share repurchase agreement (the “ASR Agreement”) with JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association for the repurchase of up to $500.0 million of our common stock which terminated and settled in April 2023. Following the termination of the ASR Agreement, other arrangements under the 2022 Repurchase Authorization commenced under which we expect to repurchase up to an additional $500.0 million shares of our common stock in open market purchases, intended to qualify under Rule 10b5-1 under the Exchange Act, subject to market and business conditions, legal requirements, and other factors. During the three months ended September 30, 2023, we repurchased approximately 3.4 million shares of common stock for approximately $166.3 million (excluding fees, commissions, and excise tax) through open market repurchases under these other arrangements.
Item 6. [Reserved]