Financial Comparison: BioLife Solutions (NASDAQ:BLFS) & Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST)

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

Volatility and Risk

Twist Bioscience has a beta of 2.22, indicating that its share price is 122% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BioLife Solutions has a beta of 1.91, indicating that its share price is 91% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Twist Bioscience and BioLife Solutions”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	27.81	-$77.67 million	($2.22)	-75.22
BioLife Solutions	$106.69 million	16.82	-$4.59 million	$1.16	31.63

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

93.2% of BioLife Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. 3.1% of Twist Bioscience shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of BioLife Solutions shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Twist Bioscience and BioLife Solutions’ 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%
BioLife Solutions	53.29%	2.70%	2.49%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Twist Bioscience and BioLife Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Twist Bioscience	2	2	8	0	2.50
BioLife Solutions	1	8	1	1	2.18

Twist Bioscience presently has a consensus target price of $103.00, indicating a potential downside of 38.32%. BioLife Solutions has a consensus target price of $31.38, indicating a potential downside of 14.49%. Given BioLife Solutions’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe BioLife Solutions is more favorable than Twist Bioscience.

Summary

BioLife Solutions beats Twist Bioscience on 9 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 BioLife Solutions

BioLife Solutions, Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets bioproduction tools and services for the cell and gene therapy (CGT) industry in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. The company’s products are used in the basic and applied research, and commercial manufacturing of biologic-based therapies. It offers proprietary biopreservation media products, including HypoThermosol FRS and CryoStor Freeze Media that are formulated to mitigate preservation-induced, delayed-onset cell damage and death; bioproduction tools, such as human platelet lysates for cell expansion and CellSeal closed system vials that are used in CGT; and the ThawSTAR line that comprises of a family of automated thawing devices for frozen cell and gene therapies packaged in cryovials and cryobags. The company also provides cryogenic freezer technology for controlled rate freezing and cryogenic storage of biologic materials; ultra-low temperature mechanical freezers; evo shipping containers that are cloud-connected passive storage and transport containers for temperature-sensitive biologics and pharmaceuticals; liquid nitrogen laboratory freezers, cryogenic equipment, and accessories; and biological and pharmaceutical storage and transport services. It markets and sells its products directly, as well as through third party distributors. The company was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Bothell, Washington.