Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) CEO Sells $147,396.16 in Stock

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) CEO Emily Leproust sold 1,688 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.32, for a total value of $147,396.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 842,919 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $73,603,687.08. This represents a 0.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Twist Bioscience Stock Up 7.5%

TWST stock traded up $6.35 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $91.35. 2,440,109 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,477,205. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $64.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $50.23. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 12-month low of $23.30 and a 12-month high of $93.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -68.68 and a beta of 2.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.70, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last released its quarterly 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). The company had revenue of $110.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $107.64 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 26.73% and a negative net margin of 19.85%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.66) EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.02 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its stake in Twist Bioscience by 71.1% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 26.4% during the third quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC now owns 1,194,883 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,624,000 after acquiring an additional 249,850 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 350.3% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 76,484 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,426,000 after acquiring an additional 59,500 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 6.0% during the third quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,142,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $116,564,000 after acquiring an additional 235,679 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 51.0% in the 3rd quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 114,268 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,216,000 after acquiring an additional 38,608 shares during the period.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on TWST. TD Cowen increased their target price on Twist Bioscience from $68.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 15th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Leerink Partners set a $80.00 target price on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.60.

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.