Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.17 EPS

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday. The company reported ($0.71) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.54) by ($0.17), Briefing.com reports. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 27.16% and a negative net margin of 19.56%.The company had revenue of $110.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $107.64 million. Twist Bioscience’s revenue was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis.

Here are the key takeaways from Twist Bioscience’s conference call:

• Twist reported Q2 revenue of $110.7M (+19% YoY), 13th consecutive quarter of sequential revenue growth, gross margin of 51.6%, and reiterated the target to reach adjusted EBITDA breakeven in Q4 FY2026.
• DNA synthesis & protein solutions grew 28% YoY, driven by AI-enabled drug discovery demand and validated by a new wet-lab partnership with Amazon Bio Discovery and collaborations with MSK and Johns Hopkins.
• NGS applications revenue grew 12% YoY (9% sequentially) with particular strength in oncology diagnostics and MRD panels, and management expects NGS to drive H2 sequential growth and return to ~20% growth by Q4.
• Management is improving manufacturing acceptance rates (targeting ~99.5% of Clonal Genes and ~99.9% of all DNA products), a change expected to capture more orders, expand wallet share, and strengthen competitive differentiation.
• Operating expenses rose to $95.8M as the company invested in commercial and digital capabilities, adjusted EBITDA remained a $13.3M loss (albeit improved), a ~$17.1M securities settlement produced a $7.2M Q2 charge, and cash fell to $171.7M, indicating near-term cash and expense pressure.

Twist Bioscience Trading Down 6.1%

NASDAQ:TWST opened at $56.74 on Monday. Twist Bioscience has a 12-month low of $23.30 and a 12-month high of $66.06. The firm has a market cap of $3.48 billion, a PE ratio of -44.76 and a beta of 2.22. The company has a current ratio of 3.78, a quick ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $50.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.06.

Insider Transactions at Twist Bioscience

In other Twist Bioscience news, CFO Adam Laponis sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $240,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 118,694 shares in the company, valued at $7,121,640. The trade was a 3.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert Chess sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.00, for a total transaction of $470,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 21,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $990,948. This trade represents a 32.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 63,220 shares of company stock valued at $3,265,601 over the last quarter. Insiders own 3.08% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 31.7% in the fourth quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 5,377,991 shares of the company’s stock valued at $170,590,000 after purchasing an additional 1,295,672 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 151.5% during 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 during the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 7,559,495 shares of the company’s stock valued at $239,787,000 after purchasing an additional 832,687 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in Twist Bioscience by 934.0% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 628,241 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,113,000 after purchasing an additional 567,481 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in Twist Bioscience by 17.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,627,818 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,074,000 after buying an additional 538,755 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TWST has been the topic of several research analyst reports. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 30th. Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 price target on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, March 27th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.13.

About Twist Bioscience

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.