Insider Selling: Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Insider Sells 402 Shares of Stock

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) insider Dennis Cho sold 402 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.84, for a total value of $28,075.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 119,692 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,359,289.28. This trade represents a 0.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Twist Bioscience Trading Down 3.3%

Shares of TWST stock traded down $2.29 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $67.77. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,145,142 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,390,736. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.63. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 52 week low of $23.30 and a 52 week high of $80.50. 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 $4.22 billion, a PE ratio of -50.95 and a beta of 2.23.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 last year, the business posted ($0.66) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Leerink Partners set a $80.00 target price on Twist Bioscience in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Guggenheim raised their target price on Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Barclays raised their target price on Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Perceptive Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Twist Bioscience during the 1st quarter valued at about $7,128,000. Western Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Twist Bioscience during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Flax Pond Capital LLC acquired a new position in Twist Bioscience during the 1st quarter valued at about $76,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 46.3% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 584,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,764,000 after purchasing an additional 184,907 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas boosted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas now owns 145,960 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,936,000 after purchasing an additional 10,310 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.