Insider Selling: Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) CEO Sells $6,317,808.60 in Stock

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) CEO Emily Leproust sold 41,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.98, for a total transaction of $6,317,808.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 770,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $117,135,393.42. The trade was a 5.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

NASDAQ TWST opened at $141.38 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -63.68 and a beta of 2.14. The business’s 50 day moving average is $106.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.82. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 12-month low of $23.30 and a 12-month high of $155.44. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported ($0.56) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.51) by ($0.05). Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 31.66% and a negative return on equity of 28.64%. The business had revenue of $118.38 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $114.55 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.12 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 10,945.7% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 7,770,424 shares of the company’s stock valued at $799,421,000 after buying an additional 7,700,076 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Twist Bioscience during the second quarter worth $600,191,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Twist Bioscience during the second quarter worth $223,722,000. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 31.7% in the fourth quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 5,377,991 shares of the company’s stock worth $170,590,000 after acquiring an additional 1,295,672 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 151.5% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,793,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,479,000 after acquiring an additional 1,080,722 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Twist Bioscience from $85.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. UBS Group set a $89.00 target price on Twist Bioscience in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on Twist Bioscience from $90.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Evercore cut Twist Bioscience from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $102.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.30.

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.