Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Decreases Stake in Twist Bioscience Corporation $TWST

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA cut its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) by 16.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 185,992 shares of the company’s stock after selling 36,655 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in Twist Bioscience were worth $8,084,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,812,146 shares during the period. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 71.1% during the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 4,082,319 shares of the company’s stock worth $114,876,000 after buying an additional 1,696,377 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in 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 buying an additional 1,080,722 shares during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 832,687 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 567,481 shares in the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on TWST. Piper Sandler started coverage on Twist Bioscience in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $85.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group set a $89.00 price objective on Twist Bioscience in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Barclays upped their target price on Twist Bioscience from $65.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group started coverage on Twist Bioscience in a research report on Monday, June 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $90.00 price target for the company. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.30.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

Shares of TWST opened at $99.24 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 2.70 and a quick ratio of 2.42. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $70.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $53.83. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 1-year low of $23.30 and a 1-year high of $105.47. The stock has a market cap of $6.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -74.62 and a beta of 2.11.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $107.64 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.66) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Twist Bioscience

In other news, insider Dennis Cho sold 14,205 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.75, for a total value 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. The trade was a 11.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Jan Johannessen sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director owned 17,754 shares in the company, valued at $996,354.48. This represents a 40.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 67,580 shares of company stock valued at $5,169,482 in the last ninety days. 3.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.