Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Upgraded by Leerink Partners to Outperform Rating

Key Points

• Leerink Partners upgraded Twist Bioscience to an Outperform with a $70 price target, implying roughly a 24.6% upside from the prior close.
• Q2 revenue beat — $110.7M, up ~19% year‑over‑year — and management raised Q3 and FY‑2026 revenue guidance, but EPS missed (loss ≈ $0.71 vs. $0.49 expected) and the company remains unprofitable (net margin ~‑19.6%), with analysts forecasting further FY losses.
• Insiders (including the CEO and CFO) have sold shares under pre‑arranged 10b5‑1 plans — about 55,751 shares (~$2.92M) over the past three months — while the stock has been volatile and was down ~7% on the day.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) was upgraded by investment analysts at Leerink Partners from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $70.00 price objective on the stock. Leerink Partners' target price indicates a potential upside of 24.58% from the company's previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, March 27th. Guggenheim raised their price target on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 30th. Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 price target on Twist Bioscience in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $52.44.

Twist Bioscience Stock Down 7.0%

TWST opened at $56.19 on Tuesday. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $50.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 3.37 and a current ratio of 3.78. Twist Bioscience has a one year low of $23.30 and a one year high of $66.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.45 billion, a P/E ratio of -43.90 and a beta of 2.22.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.49) by ($0.22). Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 27.16% and a negative net margin of 19.56%.The company had revenue of $110.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $107.64 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.66) EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience will post -1.86 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Twist Bioscience

In related news, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 8,061 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 858,887 shares in the company, valued at $56,076,732.23. The trade was a 0.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 118,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,121,640. The trade was a 3.26% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 55,751 shares of company stock worth $2,917,695. Corporate insiders own 3.08% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TWST. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Twist Bioscience in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 70.6% in the 3rd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,068 shares of the company's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 442 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in Twist Bioscience in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Strategic Advocates LLC lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 562.7% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the company's stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 906 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,400 shares of the company's stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 571 shares in the last quarter.

More Twist Bioscience News

Here are the key news stories impacting Twist Bioscience this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Revenue beat and solid top-line growth: Q2 revenue was $110.7M, up ~19% year-over-year and above consensus, supporting demand for Twist’s DNA‑synthesis products driven in part by AI-related customers. TWST Q2 revenue beat (Zacks)
• Positive Sentiment: Raised revenue outlook: Twist updated Q3 and FY‑2026 revenue guidance above Street expectations (Q3: ~$114–115M; FY: ~$442–447M), implying continued demand and helping the growth story. Press release with guidance (Business Wire)
• Positive Sentiment: Product expansion could broaden TAM: Launch of "Complex Genes" (early access) targets longer and more complex sequences, which may increase addressable demand from AI‑driven protein design and therapeutics customers. Complex Genes launch (Business Wire)
• Neutral Sentiment: Conference call and details available: Management provided prepared remarks and slides (transcript/slide deck available) — useful for assessing cadence of organic growth, customer mix and margin roadmap but not immediately decisive. Earnings call transcript (Seeking Alpha)
• Negative Sentiment: EPS missed and loss widened: Reported EPS was a loss (various reports show -$0.62 to -$0.71), missing consensus and reflecting a wider loss versus prior year, which pressured the stock despite the revenue beat. Loss widened (Benzinga)
• Negative Sentiment: Profitability remains weak: Negative net margin (~-19.6%) and negative ROE, with sell‑side models forecasting further FY losses — these metrics increase sensitivity to execution and make the stock vulnerable to near‑term multiple compression. Metrics and analyst context (MarketBeat)

Twist Bioscience Company Profile

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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