Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Trading Down 5.7% After Insider Selling

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) traded down 5.7% during trading on Tuesday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $45.63 and last traded at $45.58. 439,027 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average session volume of 1,378,187 shares. The stock had previously closed at $48.33.

Specifically, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 2,423 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.43, for a total transaction of $112,499.89. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 860,629 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,959,004.47. The trade was a 0.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Paula Green sold 935 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.43, for a total transaction of $43,412.05. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 124,401 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,775,938.43. This trade represents a 0.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on TWST. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Monday, December 29th. Evercore increased their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 price objective on Twist Bioscience in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $39.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $45.88.

Twist Bioscience Trading Down 6.3%

The business has a 50-day moving average of $43.92 and a 200-day moving average of $34.80. The company has a quick ratio of 3.37, a current ratio of 3.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -35.39 and a beta of 2.23.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The company reported ($0.50) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.48) by ($0.02). Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 27.16% and a negative net margin of 19.56%.The firm had revenue of $103.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $100.32 million. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in TWST. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 227.6% in the third quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC now owns 47,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,328,000 after acquiring an additional 32,792 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 14.5% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,463,085 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,171,000 after acquiring an additional 184,726 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 62.8% during the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 1,262,739 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,533,000 after purchasing an additional 487,052 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 584,694 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,453,000 after purchasing an additional 71,777 shares in the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,142,283 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,564,000 after purchasing an additional 235,679 shares during 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.