Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has given a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $98.30.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on TWST shares. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $113.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group set a $89.00 price target on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $90.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their target price on Twist Bioscience from $60.00 to $107.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:TWST opened at $115.01 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $87.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.42. The company has a market capitalization of $7.16 billion, a PE ratio of -51.81 and a beta of 2.14. Twist Bioscience has a 1-year low of $23.30 and a 1-year high of $115.56.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported ($0.56) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.33 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Twist Bioscience will post -2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Twist Bioscience news, SVP Paula Green sold 291 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.32, for a total transaction of $25,410.12. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 120,414 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,514,550.48. This represents a 0.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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 dated Wednesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.75, for a total transaction of $1,274,898.75. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 105,141 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,436,404.75. The trade was a 11.90% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 50,211 shares of company stock valued at $4,199,331. Corporate insiders own 3.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 43.7% in the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 5,954,429 shares of the company’s stock valued at $188,874,000 after acquiring an additional 1,812,146 shares during the period. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 31.7% during the 4th 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 during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 151.5% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,793,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,479,000 after purchasing an additional 1,080,722 shares during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 12.4% during the 4th 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 last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 934.0% in the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 628,241 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,113,000 after purchasing an additional 567,481 shares during the period.

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.