Twist Bioscience Corporation $TWST Shares Sold by Lazard Asset Management LLC

Lazard Asset Management LLC lessened its stake in Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) by 12.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 57,628 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,399 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC owned 0.09% of Twist Bioscience worth $2,738,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 7,769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $246,000 after acquiring an additional 271 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 25,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $801,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 9.4% during the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $150,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 54,187 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,994,000 after purchasing an additional 442 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 89.7% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 958 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 453 shares during the period.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Piper Sandler started coverage on Twist Bioscience in a report on Thursday, June 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $85.00 target price on the stock. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $60.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. UBS Group set a $89.00 price target on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Monday, June 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.30.

Insider Buying and Selling at Twist Bioscience

In related news, CFO Adam Laponis sold 2,399 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.33, for a total value of $226,297.67. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 110,276 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,402,335.08. This represents a 2.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 stock was sold at an average price of $89.75, for a total transaction of $1,274,898.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 105,141 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,436,404.75. This represents a 11.90% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 50,211 shares of company stock valued at $4,199,331 over the last three months. 3.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Twist Bioscience Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ:TWST opened at $91.55 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 1-year low of $23.30 and a 1-year high of $105.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -68.83 and a beta of 2.11. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $84.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $61.96.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.49) by ($0.22). Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 26.73% and a negative net margin of 19.85%.The company had revenue of $110.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $107.64 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.66) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.02 earnings per share for the current year.

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.