William Blair Investment Management LLC Buys 235,679 Shares of Twist Bioscience Corporation $TWST

William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,142,283 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 235,679 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.07% of Twist Bioscience worth $116,564,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 70.6% during the 3rd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 442 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Twist Bioscience in the 2nd quarter valued at $97,000. CWM LLC increased its position in Twist Bioscience by 61.4% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the company’s stock worth $122,000 after buying an additional 1,648 shares during the period. AXQ Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience during the second quarter worth $226,000. Finally, Corton Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience in the second quarter valued at about $244,000.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:TWST opened at $46.92 on Friday. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 1 year low of $23.30 and a 1 year high of $57.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -36.66 and a beta of 2.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 3.78 and a quick ratio of 3.37. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.93.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The company reported ($0.50) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.48) by ($0.02). Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 19.56% and a negative return on equity of 27.16%. The business had revenue of $103.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $100.32 million. The firm’s revenue was up 16.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Twist Bioscience

In other Twist Bioscience news, Director Jan Johannessen sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.91, for a total transaction of $105,402.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 17,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $850,594.14. The trade was a 11.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Adam Laponis sold 7,000 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $350,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 130,031 shares in the company, valued at $6,501,550. This trade represents a 5.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,609 shares of company stock valued at $1,665,151. Company insiders own 3.08% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on TWST. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Stephens began coverage on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $41.00 price target for the company. Evercore boosted their price target on Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 price objective on Twist Bioscience in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Twist Bioscience from $39.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Twist Bioscience presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.88.

Twist Bioscience 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.