Azenta Guides FY2027 Revenue to $648M-$660M, Margin Up 250bps

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) forecast fiscal 2027 revenue of $648 million to $660 million with organic growth of 3% to 5%, after fourth-quarter sales of $167 million — up 5% reported and 2% organically — came in above the high end of its own guidance. The life sciences services company also told investors to expect a 200-to-250-basis-point jump in adjusted EBITDA margin (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) from 9.4% in fiscal 2026.

Full-year revenue rose 5% to $622 million, including 2% organic growth. CFO Lawrence Lin credited the beat primarily to stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter activity in Multiomics, the segment housing the GENEWIZ genomic services business.

"Our goal is to deliver consistent performance quarter-after-quarter," Interim President and CEO Martin Madaus said, noting that booking trends improved across the business during the fourth quarter.

What does the FY2027 guidance contain?

• Revenue: $648 million to $660 million, with 3% to 5% organic growth.
• Segments: mid-single-digit organic growth in Sample Management Solutions; low-single-digit in Multiomics.
• Margin: adjusted EBITDA margin up roughly 200 to 250 basis points from 9.4% — including about 100 basis points of dilution from the Elegen licensing deal and the SynPlexity acquisition.
• Free cash flow: up approximately 25% from $27 million in fiscal 2026, though the first quarter will run negative on capital investments, restructuring cash and Multiomics integration costs.
• Q1: organic growth of roughly 3% to 4%, with adjusted EBITDA margin up 100 to 150 basis points year over year.

Lin said the high end of the revenue range includes potential contributions from the two new gene synthesis transactions. In plain words: the company expects both more sales and better profitability next year.

How did the two segments perform?

Sample Management Solutions delivered $94 million in fourth-quarter revenue, up 9% reported and 4% organic. Lin attributed the growth to biorepositories plus Consumables and Instruments, partly offset by lower Automated Stores revenue. UK Biocentre added $4.5 million to reported revenue in the quarter.

Automated Stores had a rough fiscal 2026, absorbing customer capital-spending constraints, execution challenges and roughly $6 million in quality-related remediation costs — though less than $1 million of that landed in the fourth quarter. Madaus said some customer capital budgets are freeing up and improved bookings give good visibility into fiscal 2027, though project timing remains a factor. Azenta expects Automated Stores to return to modest growth and plans two new storage product launches near the end of fiscal 2027, with the main impact in fiscal 2028.

Multiomics posted $73 million in fourth-quarter revenue, flat reported and down 1% organically. Second-half organic revenue grew about 4%, a clear acceleration from the roughly 1% decline in the first half, Lin said. Gene synthesis and selected sequencing services helped, while legacy Sanger sequencing kept shrinking as customers moved to other technologies. Strip out the Sanger headwind, Lin said, and the fiscal 2027 growth rate for Multiomics would be four percentage points higher.

Next-generation sequencing revenue declined in the quarter, partly because a roughly $3 million order slipped into the third quarter and partly on a tough prior-year comparison. Multiomics President Trey Martin said bookings in that business had improved.

What are the gene synthesis deals worth?

Azenta paid $15 million in cash for SynPlexity, with up to $10 million more in contingent consideration. Expected capital deployment under the exclusive Elegen license runs roughly $32 million to $71 million, depending on equipment purchases and whether Azenta converts the license to a perpetual one.

Martin said Elegen's technology produces high-purity DNA without a conventional cloning step, while SynPlexity enables thousands of full-length gene designs to be produced in parallel. Management framed fiscal 2027 as a year of integration, scale-up and early commercialization. "The transactions are initially dilutive but are expected to be positive in the second year," Madaus said.

Separately, Multiomics restructuring actions announced in October should generate about $11 million in annualized savings once substantially complete — expected around the end of the second fiscal quarter. That stacks on roughly $7 million in annualized savings from actions initiated earlier in fiscal 2026.

What did profitability and capital returns look like?

Fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA came in at $19.4 million, or 11.6% of revenue; the full-year figure was $58.3 million. Non-GAAP EPS was 28 cents for the quarter and 48 cents for the year, both flattered by a reversal of stock-based compensation tied to the former CEO's unvested awards.

The balance sheet is clean: $506 million in cash equivalents, restricted cash and marketable securities, and no debt outstanding at fiscal year-end. Azenta repurchased about 4.4 million shares for $118 million during the year, leaving roughly $132 million available under its authorization as of September 30.

Cash-rich, debt-free, and guiding up — Azenta is betting fiscal 2027 shows the turnaround can stick.