Insider Selling: Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) CEO Sells $14,182,880.88 in Stock

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) CEO Emily Leproust sold 113,318 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.16, for a total value of $14,182,880.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 818,938 shares in the company, valued at $102,498,280.08. This represents a 12.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

Shares of TWST stock traded up $2.09 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $125.21. The stock had a trading volume of 1,605,568 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,523,305. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $91.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.64. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a one year low of $23.30 and a one year high of $125.66. The firm has a market cap of $7.85 billion, a PE ratio of -56.40 and a beta of 2.14.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported ($0.56) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.51) by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $118.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $114.55 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 28.64% and a negative net margin of 31.66%.Twist Bioscience’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.33 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.12 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on TWST. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Twist Bioscience from $113.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $60.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $90.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $65.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, UBS Group set a $89.00 price target on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Monday, June 15th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.30.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TWST. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Twist Bioscience in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Western Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience during the first quarter worth approximately $31,000. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience during the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Strategic Advocates LLC grew its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 562.7% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 906 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 68.9% in the fourth quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,400 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 571 shares in the last quarter.

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.