First Trust Advisors LP Has $3.88 Million Stake in Twist Bioscience Co. (NASDAQ:TWST)

First Trust Advisors LP lowered its stake in Twist Bioscience Co. (NASDAQ:TWST - Free Report) by 52.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 83,400 shares of the company's stock after selling 93,124 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned approximately 0.14% of Twist Bioscience worth $3,876,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of TWST. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 56.4% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 740 shares of the company's stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 267 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $34,000. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 72.0% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,436 shares of the company's stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 601 shares during the period. KBC Group NV grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 71.4% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,942 shares of the company's stock worth $137,000 after purchasing an additional 1,226 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Twist Bioscience by 19.9% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,567 shares of the company's stock valued at $206,000 after purchasing an additional 757 shares during the period.

Insider Activity at Twist Bioscience

In related news, Director Robert Chess sold 2,940 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.13, for a total value of $156,202.20. Following the transaction, the director now owns 18,173 shares in the company, valued at $965,531.49. This trade represents a 13.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Patrick John Finn sold 2,058 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.99, for a total value of $82,299.42. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 265,460 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,615,745.40. This represents a 0.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,137 shares of company stock valued at $530,112 over the last ninety days. 3.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on TWST. Barclays lowered their price target on Twist Bioscience from $58.00 to $45.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $40.00 to $33.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Scotiabank reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Twist Bioscience presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $50.40.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

TWST stock traded down $3.18 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $32.75. 1,968,564 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 975,384. Twist Bioscience Co. has a twelve month low of $32.40 and a twelve month high of $60.90. The company has a current ratio of 4.96, a quick ratio of 4.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market capitalization of $1.95 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.69 and a beta of 2.54. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.98.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The company reported ($0.66) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.56) by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $92.79 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $92.00 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 32.69% and a negative net margin of 59.76%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience Co. will post -2.12 earnings per share for the current 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.