Analyzing Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) & Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR)

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) and Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

95.6% of Icon shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.1% of Twist Bioscience shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 44.0% of Icon shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Twist Bioscience and Icon”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Twist Bioscience	$376.57 million	20.50	-$77.67 million	($2.22)	-55.46
Icon	$8.25 billion	1.54	$229.34 million	$4.26	38.87

Icon has higher revenue and earnings than Twist Bioscience. Twist Bioscience is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Icon, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Twist Bioscience and Icon, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Twist Bioscience	1	1	8	0	2.70
Icon	2	7	7	1	2.41

Twist Bioscience presently has a consensus target price of $98.30, suggesting a potential downside of 20.16%. Icon has a consensus target price of $170.40, suggesting a potential upside of 2.91%. Given Icon’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Icon is more favorable than Twist Bioscience.

Profitability

This table compares Twist Bioscience and Icon’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Twist Bioscience	-31.66%	-28.64%	-19.94%
Icon	3.99%	8.02%	4.56%

Risk & Volatility

Twist Bioscience has a beta of 2.14, meaning that its stock price is 114% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Icon has a beta of 1.21, meaning that its stock price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Icon beats Twist Bioscience on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Twist Bioscience

Twist Bioscience Corporation engages in the manufacture and sale of synthetic DNA-based products. The company offers synthetic genes and gene fragments used in product development for therapeutics, diagnostics, chemicals/materials, food/agriculture, data storage, and various applications within academic research by biotech, pharma, industrial chemical, and agricultural companies, as well as academic labs; Oligo pools used in targeted NGS, CRISPR gene editing, mutagenesis experiments, DNA origami, DNA computing, data storage in DNA, and other applications; and immunoglobulin G proteins for customers focused on the pursuit of drug discovery and development. It also provides NGS tools comprising library preparation kits, human exome kits, and fixed and custom panels, as well as alliance panels, primarily used within diagnostic tests for various indications, population genetics research and biomarker discovery, translational research, microbiology, and applied markets research; and methylation detection kits for cancer, and rare and inherited disease study, as well as fast hybridization and full RNA sequencing workflow solution. In addition, the company provides synthetic SARS-CoV-2 RNA reference sequences as positive controls for the development of both NGS and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assays; synthetic monkeypox controls; and various respiratory viral controls, including for influenzas, respiratory syncytial virus, rhinoviruses, SARS, MERS, and coronaviruses. Further, it offers SARS-CoV-2 Research Panels, such as the Twist Respiratory Virus Panel and the Pan-Viral Research Panel, for the detection of disease in a research setting; precision DNA libraries used for antibody engineering, affinity maturation, and humanization; and antibody optimization solution to enable simultaneous optimization of multiple characteristics of a given antibody. The company was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

About Icon

ICON Public Limited Company, a clinical research organization, provides outsourced development and commercialization services in Ireland, rest of Europe, the United States, and internationally. The company specializes in the strategic development, management, and analysis of programs that support various stages of the clinical development process from compound selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies. It also offers clinical development services, including all phases of development, peri and post approval, data solutions, and site and patient access services; clinical trial management, consulting, and contract staffing services; and commercial services comprising clinical development strategy, planning and trial design, full study execution, and post-market commercialization. In addition, the company provides laboratory services, including bionanalytical, biomarker, vaccine, good manufacturing practice, and central laboratory services, as well as full-service and functional service partnerships to customers. Further, it offers adaptive trials, cardiac safety solutions, clinical and scientific operations, consulting and advisory, commercial positioning, decentralized and hybrid clinical trials, early clinical, laboratories, language services, medical imaging, real world intelligence, site and patient, and strategic solutions. The company serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries, as well as government and public health organizations. ICON Public Limited Company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.