Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Insider Dennis Cho Sells 5,000 Shares

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) insider Dennis Cho sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.93, for a total value of $249,650.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 138,581 shares in the company, valued at $6,919,349.33. This trade represents a 3.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Dennis Cho also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, February 3rd, Dennis Cho sold 1,099 shares of Twist Bioscience stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.58, for a total value of $51,191.42.
• On Monday, December 22nd, Dennis Cho sold 324 shares of Twist Bioscience stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.56, for a total transaction of $11,197.44.

Twist Bioscience Stock Up 3.0%

TWST stock traded up $1.45 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $49.11. 1,061,040 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,480,532. The company has a market cap of $3.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -38.37 and a beta of 2.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 3.37 and a current ratio of 3.78. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 1-year low of $23.30 and a 1-year high of $51.00. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.40.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last posted its 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 company had revenue of $103.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $100.32 million. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its stake in Twist Bioscience by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 25,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $801,000 after buying an additional 305 shares during the period. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 70.6% during the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 442 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 0.8% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 54,187 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,994,000 after purchasing an additional 442 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its position in Twist Bioscience by 8.4% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 6,031 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares during the period.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on TWST. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $39.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Evercore raised their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 price target on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.88.

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.