With the business potentially at an important milestone, we thought we'd take a closer look at Azenta, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AZTA) future prospects. Azenta, Inc. provides life science sample exploration and management solutions for the life sciences market in North America, Europe, China, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The US$3.9b market-cap company announced a latest loss of US$11m on 30 September 2022 for its most recent financial year result. As path to profitability is the topic on Azenta's investors mind, we've decided to gauge market sentiment. We've put together a brief outline of industry analyst expectations for the company, its year of breakeven and its implied growth rate.

See our latest analysis for Azenta

Azenta is bordering on breakeven, according to the 5 American Life Sciences analysts. They expect the company to post a final loss in 2023, before turning a profit of US$6.4m in 2024. So, the company is predicted to breakeven just over a year from today. How fast will the company have to grow each year in order to reach the breakeven point by 2024? Working backwards from analyst estimates, it turns out that they expect the company to grow 84% year-on-year, on average, which signals high confidence from analysts. Should the business grow at a slower rate, it will become profitable at a later date than expected.

Given this is a high-level overview, we won't go into details of Azenta's upcoming projects, though, bear in mind that generally life science companies, depending on the stage of product development, have irregular periods of cash flow. This means that a high growth rate is not unusual, especially if the company is currently in an investment period.

Before we wrap up, there's one aspect worth mentioning. Azenta currently has no debt on its balance sheet, which is quite unusual for a cash-burning life science company, which usually has a high level of debt relative to its equity. The company currently operates purely off its shareholder funding and has no debt obligation, reducing concerns around repayments and making it a less risky investment.

Next Steps:

There are key fundamentals of Azenta which are not covered in this article, but we must stress again that this is merely a basic overview. For a more comprehensive look at Azenta, take a look at Azenta's company page on Simply Wall St. We've also put together a list of pertinent aspects you should further research:

1. Valuation: What is Azenta worth today? Has the future growth potential already been factored into the price? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether Azenta is currently mispriced by the market.
2. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business – take a look at who sits on Azenta's board and the CEO's background.
3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.