Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Hits New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $66.93 and last traded at $65.11, with a volume of 37627 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $64.87.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on TWST shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Leerink Partners set a $80.00 price objective on Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Evercore increased their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Guggenheim raised their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Twist Bioscience currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.00.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $4.05 billion, a P/E ratio of -48.73 and a beta of 2.22. The company’s fifty day moving average is $53.36 and its 200 day moving average is $43.79. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $110.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $107.64 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.66) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -1.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Melissa A. Starovasnik sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.83, for a total transaction of $30,915.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 25,222 shares in the company, valued at $1,559,476.26. This trade represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.12, for a total value of $673,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 17,754 shares in the company, valued at $996,354.48. This trade represents a 40.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 46,551 shares of company stock worth $2,566,533 in the last 90 days. 3.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,463,085 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,171,000 after buying an additional 184,726 shares during the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 71.1% in the 3rd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 4,082,319 shares of the company’s stock worth $114,876,000 after acquiring an additional 1,696,377 shares during the last quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 26.4% in 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 increased its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 350.3% in 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. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its stake 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 valued at $116,564,000 after acquiring an additional 235,679 shares during the last quarter.

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.