Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) Receives Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Analysts give Twist Bioscience a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" (9 analysts: 7 buy, 2 sell) with an average 1‑year price target of $47.13 and several firms (Barclays, Evercore, Guggenheim) recently raising targets into the $50s.
• Insider selling has been notable: CEO Emily Leproust sold 8,061 shares (at ~$65.29) and insiders sold 62,720 shares (~$3.23M) over the past three months; company insiders now own about 3.08% of the stock.
• Twist reported Q1 revenue of $103.7M (up 16.9% year‑over‑year) that beat expectations, but posted an EPS loss of ($0.50) (slightly below estimates) and remains unprofitable with negative net margin and ROE.

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the nine analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $47.1250.

TWST has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, March 27th. TD Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Evercore raised their target price on Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their price target on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 30th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Twist Bioscience

In other news, insider Dennis Cho sold 5,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.93, for a total transaction of $249,650.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 138,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,919,349.33. The trade was a 3.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 8,061 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.29, for a total transaction of $526,302.69. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 858,887 shares in the company, valued at $56,076,732.23. This represents a 0.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 62,720 shares of company stock valued at $3,234,686. Company insiders own 3.08% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 11.8% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 40,373 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,585,000 after purchasing an additional 4,254 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in Twist Bioscience by 4.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 70,310 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,765,000 after buying an additional 3,181 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Twist Bioscience by 4.2% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 932,978 shares of the company's stock valued at $36,629,000 after buying an additional 37,577 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 18.9% in the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 28,917 shares of the company's stock worth $1,135,000 after acquiring an additional 4,591 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience in the second quarter worth $737,000.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

NASDAQ:TWST opened at $61.00 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.37, a current ratio of 3.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $50.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.48. The stock has a market cap of $3.74 billion, a P/E ratio of -47.66 and a beta of 2.20. Twist Bioscience has a twelve month low of $23.30 and a twelve month high of $66.06.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The company reported ($0.50) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.48) by ($0.02). The company 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 revenue for the quarter was up 16.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Twist Bioscience will post -1.86 EPS for the current year.

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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