Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. Buys Shares of 14,450 Twist Bioscience Corporation $TWST

Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. bought a new stake in Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 14,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $458,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 25,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $801,000 after acquiring an additional 305 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $150,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 0.8% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 54,187 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,994,000 after acquiring an additional 442 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 70.6% in the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,068 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 442 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 2.8% in the third quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 23,122 shares of the company’s stock valued at $651,000 after acquiring an additional 628 shares during the last quarter.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

Shares of TWST stock opened at $58.45 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $50.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.92. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 12 month low of $23.30 and a 12 month high of $66.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -45.66 and a beta of 2.20. The company has a current ratio of 3.78, a quick ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The company reported ($0.50) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.48) by ($0.02). Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 19.56% and a negative return on equity of 27.16%. The firm had revenue of $103.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $100.32 million. Twist Bioscience’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -1.86 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on TWST. Barclays lifted their target price on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Evercore lifted their target price on Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 target price on Twist Bioscience in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Adam Laponis sold 7,000 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $350,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 130,031 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,501,550. The trade was a 5.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 8,061 shares of Twist Bioscience 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 858,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,076,732.23. This represents a 0.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 63,220 shares of company stock valued at $3,265,601 over the last 90 days. 3.08% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.