Twist Bioscience’s (TWST) “Sell” Rating Reiterated at BWS Financial

BWS Financial restated their sell rating on shares of Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) in a research note published on Friday,Benzinga reports. BWS Financial currently has a $45.00 price objective on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group initiated coverage on Twist Bioscience in a report on Wednesday, September 9th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $144.00 price objective for the company. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $65.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $113.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Leerink Partners lifted their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $120.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Twist Bioscience presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $103.00.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

Twist Bioscience stock opened at $166.99 on Friday. Twist Bioscience has a fifty-two week low of $23.30 and a fifty-two week high of $167.05. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $118.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $83.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.67. The stock has a market cap of $10.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -75.22 and a beta of 2.22.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported ($0.56) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.51) by ($0.05). Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 28.64% and a negative net margin of 31.66%.The firm had revenue of $118.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $114.55 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Twist Bioscience will post -2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Twist Bioscience

In other Twist Bioscience news, CFO Adam Laponis sold 2,399 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.33, for a total value of $226,297.67. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 110,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,402,335.08. The trade was a 2.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 113,318 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.16, for a total value of $14,182,880.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 818,938 shares in the company, valued at approximately $102,498,280.08. This represents a 12.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 190,784 shares of company stock worth $23,846,005. 3.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Twist Bioscience

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TWST. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience in the second quarter worth approximately $600,191,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Twist Bioscience in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $223,722,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in Twist Bioscience in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $94,922,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in Twist Bioscience in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $22,563,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Twist Bioscience in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $19,722,000.

About Twist Bioscience

Twist Bioscience Corporation is a biotechnology company that develops and manufactures synthetic DNA using a proprietary silicon-based platform. The company serves researchers and organizations in biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, agriculture, industrial chemicals and academic research.

Its products include synthetic genes, gene fragments, oligonucleotides and DNA libraries used in research, drug discovery, diagnostics development and other applications. Twist also provides next-generation sequencing tools and products, including target-enrichment and sample-preparation solutions, as well as synthetic biology services that support the design and testing of biological systems.

Twist was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.