Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Leerink Partners set a $80.00 price objective on Twist Bioscience in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Guggenheim upped their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.38.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

NASDAQ:TWST opened at $74.05 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $59.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $47.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -55.68 and a beta of 2.23. Twist Bioscience has a 12-month low of $23.30 and a 12-month high of $80.50.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.49) by ($0.22). The business had revenue of $110.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $107.64 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 19.85% and a negative return on equity of 26.73%. Twist Bioscience’s quarterly revenue was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.66) EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 8,061 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.29, for a total value of $526,302.69. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 858,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,076,732.23. This represents a 0.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Jan Johannessen sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 40.33% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 43,170 shares of company stock valued at $2,418,964 in the last ninety days. 3.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TWST. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 11.8% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 40,373 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,585,000 after purchasing an additional 4,254 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 4.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 70,310 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,765,000 after buying an additional 3,181 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 4.2% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 932,978 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,629,000 after buying an additional 37,577 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 18.9% during the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 28,917 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,135,000 after buying an additional 4,591 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Twist Bioscience during the second quarter worth approximately $737,000.

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.