Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at BWS Financial

Stock analysts at BWS Financial started coverage on shares of Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) in a report released on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm set a “sell” rating and a $45.00 price target on the stock. BWS Financial’s price target points to a potential downside of 64.75% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on TWST. Leerink Partners set a $110.00 target price on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $90.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. UBS Group began coverage on Twist Bioscience in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $144.00 price target for the company. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $85.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.45.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

Shares of TWST stock traded down $0.39 on Wednesday, reaching $127.67. The company had a trading volume of 61,518 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,521,626. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.01 billion, a PE ratio of -57.52 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 one year low of $23.30 and a one year high of $155.44. The business’s 50-day moving average is $111.93 and its 200 day moving average is $77.92.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 113,318 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.16, for a total value of $14,182,880.88. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 818,938 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $102,498,280.08. The trade was a 12.16% 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. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Dennis Cho sold 14,205 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.75, for a total value of $1,274,898.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 105,141 shares in the company, valued at $9,436,404.75. The trade was a 11.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 192,697 shares of company stock valued at $23,998,505 over the last three months. 3.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Engineers Gate Manager LP acquired a new position in Twist Bioscience in the second quarter valued at $3,333,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Twist Bioscience during the second quarter valued at $99,000. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 54.9% during the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 601 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. Nykredit A S acquired a new stake in Twist Bioscience during the 2nd quarter worth about $283,000. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,327,000.

Twist Bioscience Company Profile

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.