Melissa Starovasnik Sells 500 Shares of Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Stock

Key Points

• Director Melissa Starovasnik sold 500 shares on April 27 at an average price of $61.83 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, reducing her holding to 25,222 shares (a 1.94% decrease) valued at about $1.56M.
• Twist's latest quarter missed EPS (reported $(0.50) vs. $(0.48) estimate) but revenue rose 16.9% to $103.7M and beat expectations; the company remains unprofitable and the stock recently traded near $56.70 (1‑year range $23.30–$66.06).
• Wall Street's consensus is a Moderate Buy with an average target of $47.13 and several firms (Barclays, Evercore) raising targets, while institutional investors like William Blair and ARK have significantly increased their stakes.

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) Director Melissa Starovasnik sold 500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director directly owned 25,222 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,559,476.26. This represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

TWST traded down $2.45 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $56.70. The stock had a trading volume of 1,028,591 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,307,353. The company has a market cap of $3.48 billion, a P/E ratio of -44.30 and a beta of 2.20. The business has a fifty day moving average of $50.31 and a 200 day moving average of $40.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 3.37 and a current ratio of 3.78. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 1 year low of $23.30 and a 1 year high of $66.06.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The company reported ($0.50) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.48) by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $103.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $100.32 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 27.16% and a negative net margin of 19.56%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 16.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -1.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on TWST shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 price objective on Twist Bioscience in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Evercore upped their target price on Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. TD Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, March 27th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $47.13.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TWST. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 43.7% during the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 5,954,429 shares of the company's stock valued at $188,874,000 after acquiring an additional 1,812,146 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its stake 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 worth $114,876,000 after purchasing an additional 1,696,377 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership grew its stake in Twist Bioscience by 26.7% in the third quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 6,410,900 shares of the company's stock worth $180,403,000 after purchasing an additional 1,349,867 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in Twist Bioscience by 151.5% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,793,850 shares of the company's stock worth $50,479,000 after purchasing an additional 1,080,722 shares during the period. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Twist Bioscience by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 7,559,495 shares of the company's stock worth $239,787,000 after purchasing an additional 832,687 shares during the period.

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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