Insider Selling: Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) CEO Sells 8,061 Shares of Stock

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) CEO Emily Leproust sold 8,061 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.29, for a total transaction of $526,302.69. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 858,887 shares in the company, valued at $56,076,732.23. This trade represents a 0.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

NASDAQ TWST traded down $4.35 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $58.85. 1,739,889 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,325,012. The business’s 50 day moving average is $49.49 and its 200-day moving average is $39.83. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 1 year low of $23.30 and a 1 year high of $66.06. The company has a market capitalization of $3.61 billion, a P/E ratio of -45.98 and a beta of 2.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 3.37 and a current ratio of 3.78.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The company reported ($0.50) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.48) by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $103.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $100.32 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 27.16% and a negative net margin of 19.56%.Twist Bioscience’s revenue was up 16.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -1.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Twist Bioscience

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Stifel Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 7,769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $246,000 after acquiring an additional 271 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its stake in Twist Bioscience by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 25,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $801,000 after buying an additional 305 shares during the period. CWM LLC boosted its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 9.4% during the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,738 shares of the company’s stock worth $150,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 70.6% during the 3rd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 442 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 54,187 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,994,000 after purchasing an additional 442 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on TWST shares. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Evercore increased their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Twist Bioscience currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.13.

About Twist Bioscience

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.