Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Trading Down 12.1% Following Analyst Downgrade

Twist Bioscience Co. (NASDAQ:TWST) fell 12.1% on Thursday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $58.00 to $45.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Twist Bioscience traded as low as $35.37 and last traded at $35.41. 162,171 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 969,972 shares. The stock had previously closed at $40.27.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Guggenheim set a $50.00 price target on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Friday, March 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Twist Bioscience from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, December 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 target price for the company. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $48.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Twist Bioscience presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.80.

Insider Activity at Twist Bioscience

In other news, CFO Adam Laponis sold 5,886 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.26, for a total value of $254,628.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 110,096 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,762,752.96. This represents a 5.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Patrick John Finn sold 2,422 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.17, for a total transaction of $121,511.74. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 272,044 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,648,447.48. The trade was a 0.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 28,682 shares of company stock worth $1,332,011 over the last three months. Company insiders own 3.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Twist Bioscience

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Twist Bioscience by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,807,183 shares of the company’s stock worth $269,860,000 after acquiring an additional 189,791 shares in the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 5,595,865 shares of the company’s stock valued at $260,040,000 after purchasing an additional 237,772 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Twist Bioscience by 19.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,167,353 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,101,000 after buying an additional 526,028 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in Twist Bioscience by 54.6% during the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,505,753 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,972,000 after buying an additional 532,040 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,374,667 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,895,000 after acquiring an additional 6,908 shares during the last quarter.

Twist Bioscience Stock Down 7.4 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $2.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.01 and a beta of 2.34. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $42.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $44.78. The company has a current ratio of 4.96, a quick ratio of 4.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The company reported ($0.53) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.62) by $0.09. Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 59.76% and a negative return on equity of 32.69%. The business had revenue of $88.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.96 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.75) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience Co. will post -2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Twist Bioscience Company Profile

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.