Analyzing Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) & iSpecimen (NASDAQ:ISPC)

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

Volatility and Risk

Twist Bioscience has a beta of 2.19, meaning that its stock price is 119% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, iSpecimen has a beta of 1.65, meaning that its stock price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Twist Bioscience and iSpecimen”s gross 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	22.56	-$77.67 million	($2.22)	-61.02
iSpecimen	$1.93 million	1.09	-$10.49 million	($56.44)	-0.01

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

13.6% of iSpecimen shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.1% of Twist Bioscience shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 12.2% of iSpecimen shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Twist Bioscience	2	3	8	0	2.46
iSpecimen	1	0	0	0	1.00

Twist Bioscience presently has a consensus target price of $143.67, suggesting a potential upside of 6.05%. Given Twist Bioscience’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Twist Bioscience is more favorable than iSpecimen.

Profitability

This table compares Twist Bioscience and iSpecimen’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%
iSpecimen	-2,445.40%	-524.39%	-140.42%

Summary

Twist Bioscience beats iSpecimen on 10 of the 14 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 iSpecimen

iSpecimen Inc. provides technology that connects life science researchers who need human biofluids, tissues, and living cells for their research with biospecimens available in healthcare provider organizations worldwide. Its cloud-based technology enables scientists to search for specimens and patients across a network of hospitals, clinics, private practice groups, laboratories, blood centers, biobanks, clinical research sites, and cadaveric donation centers. The company develops and operates iSpecimen Marketplace, a proprietary online marketplace platform that connects medical researchers who need access to subjects, samples, and data with hospitals, laboratories, and other organizations who have access to them. It serves biopharmaceutical companies, in vitro diagnostic companies, and government/academic institutions. iSpecimen Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts.