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

Key Points

• BWS Financial initiated coverage with a “sell” rating and a $45 price target, implying 64.75% downside from Twist Bioscience’s prior close of $127.67.
• Despite the bearish call, analysts overall maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus, with eight Buy, two Hold, and two Sell ratings and an average price target of $98.45.
• Twist reported quarterly revenue of $118.38 million, up 23.2% year over year and above estimates, but its $0.56 per-share loss exceeded expectations; insiders sold nearly $24 million of stock over the past 90 days.

Analysts at BWS Financial started coverage on shares of Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm set a "sell" rating and a $45.00 price target on the stock. BWS Financial's price objective points to a potential downside of 64.75% from the company's previous close.

TWST has been the subject of several other reports. Evercore lowered Twist Bioscience from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and set a $102.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Guggenheim restated a "buy" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Monday, August 24th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $144.00 price target on the stock. TD Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $65.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $98.45.

Twist Bioscience Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of TWST stock traded down $0.39 on Wednesday, hitting $127.67. The stock had a trading volume of 61,518 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,521,626. Twist Bioscience has a twelve month low of $23.30 and a twelve month high of $155.44. The firm has a market cap of $8.01 billion, a P/E ratio of -57.52 and a beta of 2.22. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $111.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $77.92.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported ($0.56) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.51) by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $118.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $114.55 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 28.64% and a negative net margin of 31.66%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.33 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Twist Bioscience will post -2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Twist Bioscience news, CFO Adam Laponis sold 2,399 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.33, for a total transaction of $226,297.67. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 110,276 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,402,335.08. This represents a 2.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Emily Leproust sold 113,318 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.16, for a total transaction of $14,182,880.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 818,938 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $102,498,280.08. This represents a 12.16% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 192,697 shares of company stock worth $23,998,505 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.08% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB acquired a new position in Twist Bioscience during the second quarter valued at approximately $853,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience in the 1st quarter valued at $22,563,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 46.3% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 584,261 shares of the company's stock valued at $27,764,000 after purchasing an additional 184,907 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience in the 2nd quarter valued at $9,265,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience in the 1st quarter valued at $4,973,000.

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.

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