Jan Johannessen Sells 12,000 Shares of Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Stock

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) Director Jan Johannessen sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.12, for a total value of $673,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 17,754 shares in the company, valued at $996,354.48. This represents a 40.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Twist Bioscience Stock Down 7.1%

TWST stock opened at $49.17 on Friday. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a twelve month low of $23.30 and a twelve month high of $66.06. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $51.85 and its 200-day moving average is $42.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.06 billion, a PE ratio of -36.97 and a beta of 2.22.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last posted its 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 net margin of 19.85% and a negative return on equity of 26.73%. The company had revenue of $110.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $107.64 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.66) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -1.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Twist Bioscience

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Twist Bioscience in the third quarter worth $28,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in Twist Bioscience by 70.6% in the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 442 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in Twist Bioscience in the first quarter worth $33,000. Strategic Advocates LLC increased its position in Twist Bioscience by 562.7% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 906 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. increased its position in Twist Bioscience by 68.9% in the fourth quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 571 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Leerink Partners raised Twist Bioscience from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Guggenheim increased their price target on Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Evercore increased their price target on Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.57.

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.