Insider Selling: Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Insider Sells $30,212.72 in Stock

Key Points

• Insider sale: Twist Bioscience insider Dennis Cho sold 346 shares at an average price of $87.32, totaling about $30,213. The filing says the sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations tied to vested equity awards.
• Stock performance: TWST jumped 7.5% to $91.35 in Wednesday trading, approaching its 52-week high of $93.80. Trading volume also came in above average.
• Analyst and fundamentals backdrop: The company recently reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss but beat revenue estimates, and analysts remain mostly bullish with a “Moderate Buy” consensus. Several firms recently raised price targets, including Barclays to $95.

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) insider Dennis Cho sold 346 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.32, for a total transaction of $30,212.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 119,346 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,421,292.72. The trade was a 0.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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.

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

• On Monday, June 8th, Dennis Cho sold 402 shares of Twist Bioscience stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.84, for a total transaction of $28,075.68.

Twist Bioscience Trading Up 7.5%

Shares of TWST traded up $6.35 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $91.35. The company had a trading volume of 2,440,610 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,477,205. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $23.30 and a fifty-two week high of $93.80. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $50.23. The stock has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -68.68 and a beta of 2.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.70, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.49) by ($0.22). Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 26.73% and a negative net margin of 19.85%.The firm had revenue of $110.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $107.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.66) earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TWST has been the topic of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, March 27th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $65.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group began coverage on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Monday, June 15th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $90.00 price objective for the company. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $74.60.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TWST. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 71.1% in the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 4,082,319 shares of the company's stock valued at $114,876,000 after buying an additional 1,696,377 shares during the last quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 26.4% in the 3rd quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC now owns 1,194,883 shares of the company's stock worth $33,624,000 after acquiring an additional 249,850 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 350.3% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 76,484 shares of the company's stock worth $2,426,000 after acquiring an additional 59,500 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,142,283 shares of the company's stock valued at $116,564,000 after acquiring an additional 235,679 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 114,268 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,216,000 after acquiring an additional 38,608 shares in the last quarter.

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.

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