William Blair Investment Management LLC Boosts Stock Position in Twist Bioscience Corporation $TWST

Key Points

• William Blair Investment Management increased its Twist Bioscience stake by 43.7% in the fourth quarter, bringing its position to 5.95 million shares worth about $188.9 million and making it one of the company’s largest holders.
• Analysts remain broadly positive on the stock: several firms raised price targets, and Twist Bioscience now has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy with an average price target of $58.00.
• Twist Bioscience reported quarterly revenue of $110.72 million, up 19.3% year over year, but earnings missed expectations, with the company posting a loss of $0.71 per share versus the expected loss of $0.49.

William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST - Free Report) by 43.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,954,429 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,812,146 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned 9.71% of Twist Bioscience worth $188,874,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Twist Bioscience during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 70.6% during the 3rd 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 period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 68.9% during the 4th quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,400 shares of the company's stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 571 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI purchased a new position in Twist Bioscience during the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, Leonteq Securities AG purchased a new position in Twist Bioscience during the 4th quarter valued at $48,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Evercore boosted their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Leerink Partners set a $80.00 price objective on Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday. Guggenheim lifted their target price on Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $58.00.

Twist Bioscience Trading Up 3.0%

Shares of NASDAQ TWST opened at $60.57 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.26. The firm has a market cap of $3.77 billion, a PE ratio of -45.54 and a beta of 2.22. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a twelve month low of $23.30 and a twelve month high of $66.06.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.49) by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $110.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $107.64 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 19.85% and a negative return on equity of 26.73%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.66) earnings per share. Analysts expect that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -1.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Twist Bioscience

In other news, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 8,061 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $56,076,732.23. The trade was a 0.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Melissa A. Starovasnik sold 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.83, for a total value of $30,915.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 25,222 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,559,476.26. The trade was a 1.94% 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 sold a total of 46,551 shares of company stock worth $2,566,533 over the last quarter. Insiders own 3.08% of the company's stock.

Twist Bioscience 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.

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