Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Trading 10.3% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST)’s share price was up 10.3% on Wednesday after Robert W. Baird raised their price target on the stock from $113.00 to $115.00. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Twist Bioscience traded as high as $111.88 and last traded at $109.72. 593,619 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 60% from the average daily volume of 1,494,425 shares. The stock had previously closed at $99.44.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on TWST. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $90.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Evercore cut Twist Bioscience from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $102.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, UBS Group set a $89.00 price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Twist Bioscience presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Adam Laponis sold 2,399 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.33, for a total value of $226,297.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 110,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,402,335.08. This represents a 2.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Dennis Cho sold 14,205 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.75, for a total value of $1,274,898.75. Following the sale, the insider owned 105,141 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,436,404.75. This trade represents a 11.90% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 50,211 shares of company stock valued at $4,199,331. Insiders own 3.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Twist Bioscience

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TWST. ARK Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 7,559,495 shares of the company’s stock valued at $239,787,000 after acquiring an additional 832,687 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 43.7% in the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 5,954,429 shares of the company’s stock valued at $188,874,000 after purchasing an additional 1,812,146 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 31.7% during the fourth quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 5,377,991 shares of the company’s stock worth $170,590,000 after purchasing an additional 1,295,672 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Twist Bioscience by 17.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,627,818 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,074,000 after purchasing an additional 538,755 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in Twist Bioscience by 151.5% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,793,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,479,000 after purchasing an additional 1,080,722 shares in the last quarter.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 2.70 and a quick ratio of 2.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.94 billion, a P/E ratio of -83.77 and a beta of 2.14. The company has a fifty day moving average of $86.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $62.98.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported ($0.56) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.51) by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $118.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $114.55 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 28.40% and a negative net margin of 31.66%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.33 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.02 EPS for the current year.

Twist Bioscience Company Profile

Twist Bioscience Corporation is a synthetic biology company specializing in the development and commercialization of DNA-based products and solutions. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in South San Francisco, California, the company has pioneered a proprietary silicon-based DNA synthesis platform designed for high-throughput production of synthetic genes and oligonucleotides. Twist leverages semiconductor manufacturing techniques to enable precise, scalable synthesis of DNA at speeds and volumes unattainable with traditional methods.

At the core of Twist’s offering is its proprietary platform that automates the synthesis of custom DNA fragments, gene libraries, and long oligonucleotides.