Barclays Trims Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Target Price to $40.00

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) had its price target reduced by investment analysts at Barclays from $45.00 to $40.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "overweight" rating on the stock. Barclays's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 25.55% from the company's previous close.

TWST has been the topic of several other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Twist Bioscience from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $45.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $30.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Monday, February 5th.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

Shares of TWST traded down $1.87 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $31.86. The stock had a trading volume of 704,814 shares, compared to its average volume of 923,018. Twist Bioscience has a 1 year low of $11.46 and a 1 year high of $43.21. The firm has a market cap of $1.84 billion, a PE ratio of -8.83 and a beta of 1.62. The stock's 50 day moving average is $36.42 and its 200 day moving average is $29.60.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported ($0.75) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.78) by $0.03. Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 78.44% and a negative return on equity of 32.16%. The business had revenue of $71.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $67.59 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.74) earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 31.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Twist Bioscience will post -3.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Twist Bioscience news, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 1,132 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.74, for a total transaction of $37,061.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 514,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $16,833,238.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 1,132 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.74, for a total transaction of $37,061.68. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 514,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $16,833,238.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 1,128 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.52, for a total transaction of $37,810.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 515,281 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,272,219.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,481 shares of company stock valued at $365,655. 3.92% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 9,025 shares of the company's stock worth $318,000 after purchasing an additional 291 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 101.3% during the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 759 shares of the company's stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 382 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 16,774 shares of the company's stock worth $618,000 after acquiring an additional 554 shares during the period. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 16.0% during the 1st quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 4,293 shares of the company's stock worth $212,000 after acquiring an additional 591 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 11.8% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 5,942 shares of the company's stock worth $295,000 after acquiring an additional 626 shares during the period.

About Twist Bioscience

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.