Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Shares Down 4.1% – Should You Sell?

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) dropped 4.1% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $33.58 and last traded at $33.6320. Approximately 39,548 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 97% from the average daily volume of 1,346,963 shares. The stock had previously closed at $35.06.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on TWST shares. Evercore ISI cut their target price on Twist Bioscience from $46.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Stephens assumed coverage on Twist Bioscience in a report on Monday, November 3rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $41.00 target price for the company. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.88.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 3.33, a current ratio of 3.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $31.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.19. The firm has a market cap of $2.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -25.66 and a beta of 2.24.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 14th. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.40) by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $99.01 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $97.40 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 20.63% and a negative return on equity of 27.40%. On average, analysts expect that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 31,379 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.44, for a total transaction of $986,555.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 738,809 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,228,154.96. This represents a 4.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Paula Green sold 9,724 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.19, for a total value of $313,015.56. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 114,678 shares in the company, valued at $3,691,484.82. This represents a 7.82% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 116,878 shares of company stock valued at $3,721,723. 3.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience during the 1st quarter worth approximately $228,000. Virtus Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Twist Bioscience during the first quarter worth $836,000. Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Twist Bioscience by 6.4% during the first quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 99,284 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,898,000 after purchasing an additional 5,965 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 40.0% in the first quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 86,851 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,410,000 after buying an additional 24,817 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Graham Capital Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 35.0% in the first quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P. now owns 23,535 shares of the company’s stock valued at $924,000 after buying an additional 6,107 shares in the last quarter.

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.