BWS Financial Reiterates “Sell” Rating for Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST)

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST)‘s stock had its “sell” rating restated by stock analysts at BWS Financial in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $45.00 price target on the stock. BWS Financial’s target price indicates a potential downside of 71.68% from the company’s current price.

TWST has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Twist Bioscience from $90.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Twist Bioscience from $85.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Leerink Partners boosted their target price on Twist Bioscience from $120.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $113.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Twist Bioscience currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $103.00.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

TWST stock opened at $158.90 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $117.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $82.21. The firm has a market cap of $9.96 billion, a P/E ratio of -71.87 and a beta of 2.22. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Twist Bioscience has a 12 month low of $23.30 and a 12 month high of $163.70.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported ($0.56) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $118.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $114.55 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience will post -2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Adam Laponis sold 2,399 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.33, for a total value of $226,297.67. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 110,276 shares in the company, valued at $10,402,335.08. This represents a 2.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Dennis Cho sold 412 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.62, for a total transaction of $50,519.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 73,651 shares in the company, valued at $9,031,085.62. This trade represents a 0.56% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 193,109 shares of company stock worth $24,049,024. Corporate insiders own 3.08% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Twist Bioscience during the second quarter valued at $600,191,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience in the 2nd quarter worth about $223,722,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience in the 2nd quarter worth about $94,922,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience in the 1st quarter valued at about $22,563,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience in the 2nd quarter valued at about $19,722,000.

Twist Bioscience Company Profile

Twist Bioscience Corporation is a biotechnology company that develops and manufactures synthetic DNA using a proprietary silicon-based platform. The company serves researchers and organizations in biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, agriculture, industrial chemicals and academic research.

Its products include synthetic genes, gene fragments, oligonucleotides and DNA libraries used in research, drug discovery, diagnostics development and other applications. Twist also provides next-generation sequencing tools and products, including target-enrichment and sample-preparation solutions, as well as synthetic biology services that support the design and testing of biological systems.

Twist was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.