Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Shares Down 4.4% on Insider Selling

Key Points

• Twist Bioscience shares dropped by 4.4% to $29.82 amid significant insider selling by CFO Adam Laponis and others, resulting in a decrease in their ownership stakes.
• Analyst price targets for Twist Bioscience have shifted, with Evercore ISI lowering its target to $42.00 and Barclays to $40.00, while the stock holds an average rating of "Moderate Buy" with a consensus price target of $48.50.
• Institutional investors have increased their stakes in Twist Bioscience, with UBS Asset Management growing its position by 186.1% in the first quarter, reflecting confidence in the company's long-term potential.

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded down 4.4% during mid-day trading on Monday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $29.89 and last traded at $29.82. 511,249 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 60% from the average session volume of 1,276,625 shares. The stock had previously closed at $31.19.

Specifically, CFO Adam Laponis sold 2,517 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.92, for a total value of $82,859.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 91,525 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,013,003. This trade represents a 2.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Adam Laponis sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.15, for a total transaction of $93,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 94,042 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,929,408.30. This trade represents a 3.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In other Twist Bioscience news, insider Dennis Cho sold 3,876 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.19, for a total value of $124,768.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 98,710 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,177,474.90. This trade represents a 3.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TWST has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $46.00 to $42.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $48.50.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $1.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.56 and a beta of 2.38. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $27.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 3.60 and a current ratio of 3.90.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The company reported ($0.47) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.54) by $0.07. Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 23.51% and a negative return on equity of 29.03%. The business had revenue of $96.06 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $95.52 million. Twist Bioscience has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 186.1% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 2,442,262 shares of the company's stock worth $95,883,000 after acquiring an additional 1,588,587 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 114.3% in the second quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,385,942 shares of the company's stock worth $87,779,000 after buying an additional 1,272,732 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience in the first quarter worth $31,960,000. ARK Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Twist Bioscience by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 6,241,595 shares of the company's stock valued at $245,045,000 after purchasing an additional 645,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in Twist Bioscience by 934.0% during the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 628,241 shares of the company's stock valued at $23,113,000 after purchasing an additional 567,481 shares during the last quarter.

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.

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