William Blair Investment Management LLC Buys 1,812,146 Shares of Twist Bioscience Corporation $TWST

William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) by 43.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,954,429 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,812,146 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned 0.10% of Twist Bioscience worth $188,874,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience in the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 70.6% in the 3rd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 442 shares in the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 571 shares in the last quarter. Leonteq Securities AG purchased a new position in Twist Bioscience during the 4th quarter worth $48,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI purchased a new position in Twist Bioscience during the 3rd quarter worth $46,000.

Insider Transactions at Twist Bioscience

In other news, Director Jan Johannessen sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.12, for a total value of $673,440.00. Following the sale, the director owned 17,754 shares in the company, valued at $996,354.48. This represents a 40.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Melissa A. Starovasnik sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.83, for a total value of $30,915.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 25,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,559,476.26. The trade was a 1.94% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 46,551 shares of company stock valued at $2,566,533. 3.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore boosted their target price 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 boosted their target price on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Leerink Partners set a $80.00 target price on Twist Bioscience in a research note on Friday. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Twist Bioscience has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.00.

Twist Bioscience Stock Up 3.0%

Twist Bioscience stock opened at $60.57 on Friday. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $23.30 and a fifty-two week high of $66.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a current ratio of 2.70. The company has a market cap of $3.77 billion, a PE ratio of -45.54 and a beta of 2.22. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $52.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.26.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $110.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $107.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.66) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -1.86 EPS for the current year.

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.