Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Lowered to In-Line Rating by Evercore

Key Points

• Evercore downgraded Twist Bioscience from “outperform” to “in-line” while keeping a $102 price target, which still implies only modest upside from the current share price.
• The broader analyst picture remains fairly positive, with eight Buy ratings, one Hold, and one Sell; MarketBeat shows a Moderate Buy consensus and an average target price of $84.30.
• Twist Bioscience recently reported better-than-expected revenue of $110.72 million, but it still posted a larger-than-expected loss of $0.71 per share and remains unprofitable.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Evercore from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating in a report released on Monday. They currently have a $102.00 price target on the stock. Evercore's price target points to a potential upside of 2.78% from the company's current price.

TWST has been the topic of a number of other research reports. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $68.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Canaccord Genuity Group assumed coverage on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Monday, June 15th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $90.00 price target for the company. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Leerink Partners set a $80.00 target price on Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $84.30.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

TWST opened at $99.24 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a current ratio of 2.70. Twist Bioscience has a 52-week low of $23.30 and a 52-week high of $105.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.18 billion, a PE ratio of -74.62 and a beta of 2.11. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $70.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $53.99.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.49) by ($0.22). The business had revenue of $110.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $107.64 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 26.73% and a negative net margin of 19.85%.The business's revenue was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.66) EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Twist Bioscience will post -2.02 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Twist Bioscience news, CFO Adam Laponis sold 4,000 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $240,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 118,694 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,121,640. This trade represents a 3.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Jan Johannessen sold 12,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.12, for a total value of $673,440.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 17,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $996,354.48. The trade was a 40.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 67,580 shares of company stock worth $5,169,482 over the last quarter. 3.08% 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 stock. Western Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience during the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. Strs Ohio bought a new position in Twist Bioscience in the first quarter valued at about $33,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in Twist Bioscience by 89.7% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 958 shares of the company's stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 453 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Twist Bioscience in the third quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Strategic Advocates LLC grew its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 562.7% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the company's stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 906 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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