Forensic Analysis · Machinery & Fabricated Metal Products · as of Nov 8, 2026
Azenta, Inc. (AZTA)
A forensic read on Azenta, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
9.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-3.2%
ROE
3.6%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Azenta, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 9.1, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-1.4%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -1.4% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 1.0-point range. After-tax operating profit was ($48M) in FY2023 and ($21M) in FY2025, with operating income at -11.1% of revenue in FY2023, -8.9% in FY2024 and -4.5% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -23% across FY2023–FY2025, from $2.0B to $1.6B, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. $232M of the $1.6B base at FY2025 is short-term investments and long-term marketable securities (14.9%) — securities held beside cash, which the base keeps because only cash is subtracted from it; they earn the balance sheet's yield, which is not in the operating profit above, so the loss on the operating capital is larger than this rate shows. FY2023's operating profit carried a $5M restructuring charge that took about 0.2 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $5M restructuring charge that took about 0.3 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges take about 0.1 points off the +1.0-point change across FY2023–FY2025. FY2024's operating profit carried a $111M goodwill write-off and a $7M restructuring charge that alone took about 5.2 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
stopped
FY2024→FY2025
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $662M of buybacks + dividends in FY2024, but ~$0 in FY2025. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
$111M
FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $111M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2024 ($111M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$593.8M
Revenue Growth YoY+3.6%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+3.8%
Net Margin-9.4%
Free Cash Flow$38.3M
Return on Equity-3.2%
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Azenta, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?