Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Upgraded at Piper Sandler

Key Points

• Piper Sandler upgraded Twist Bioscience to a “strong-buy” rating, adding to a generally positive analyst backdrop that includes several recent target price increases. The stock now carries a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” with an average target price of $61.38.
• TWST shares jumped 9.3% and opened at $74.05, near the upper end of its 52-week range of $23.30 to $80.50. The company has a market cap of $4.61 billion and a high beta of 2.23, indicating elevated volatility.
• In its latest earnings report, Twist Bioscience missed EPS estimates but posted revenue of $110.72 million, which was above expectations and up 19.3% year over year. The company remains unprofitable, with analysts expecting a loss of $1.99 per share for the current year.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) was upgraded by Piper Sandler to a "strong-buy" rating in a report released on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Leerink Partners set a $80.00 target price on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Friday, March 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $61.38.

Twist Bioscience Trading Up 9.3%

TWST opened at $74.05 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 2.70 and a quick ratio of 2.42. The company has a market cap of $4.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -55.68 and a beta of 2.23. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $47.25. Twist Bioscience has a fifty-two week low of $23.30 and a fifty-two week high of $80.50.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.49) by ($0.22). Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 19.85% and a negative return on equity of 26.73%. The firm had revenue of $110.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $107.64 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.66) EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Adam Laponis sold 4,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $240,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 118,694 shares in the company, valued at $7,121,640. This represents a 3.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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. Also, Director Jan Johannessen sold 12,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.12, for a total transaction of $673,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 17,754 shares of the company's stock, valued at $996,354.48. This trade represents a 40.33% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 43,170 shares of company stock valued at $2,418,964. 3.08% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. ARK Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 7,559,495 shares of the company's stock valued at $239,787,000 after buying an additional 832,687 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 26.7% in the third quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 6,410,900 shares of the company's stock valued at $180,403,000 after buying an additional 1,349,867 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 43.7% in 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 buying an additional 1,812,146 shares during the period. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 31.7% in the fourth quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 5,377,991 shares of the company's stock valued at $170,590,000 after buying an additional 1,295,672 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 17.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,627,818 shares of the company's stock worth $115,074,000 after purchasing an additional 538,755 shares during the last quarter.

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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