Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) CEO Sells $526,302.69 in Stock

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) CEO Emily Leproust sold 8,061 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.29, for a total transaction of $526,302.69. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 858,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,076,732.23. The trade was a 0.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

TWST stock traded down $4.35 on Thursday, hitting $58.85. The company had a trading volume of 1,739,889 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,325,012. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 12-month low of $23.30 and a 12-month high of $66.06. The company has a current ratio of 3.78, a quick ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.83. The stock has a market cap of $3.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -45.98 and a beta of 2.20.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The company reported ($0.50) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.48) by ($0.02). Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 27.16% and a negative net margin of 19.56%.The company had revenue of $103.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $100.32 million. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -1.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of TWST. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 442 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 906 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 571 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI purchased a new stake in Twist Bioscience during the third quarter worth $46,000.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on TWST. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Evercore lifted their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Twist Bioscience has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.13.

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.