Insider Selling: Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) CFO Sells $240,000.00 in Stock

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) CFO Adam Laponis sold 4,000 shares of the firm’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 transaction 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. This trade represents a 3.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Adam Laponis also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, April 14th, Adam Laponis sold 3,000 shares of Twist Bioscience stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total transaction of $165,000.00.
• On Thursday, April 9th, Adam Laponis sold 2,597 shares of Twist Bioscience stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.89, for a total transaction of $129,564.33.
• On Thursday, February 12th, Adam Laponis sold 7,000 shares of Twist Bioscience stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $350,000.00.

Twist Bioscience Stock Down 6.9%

TWST stock opened at $58.85 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.78, a quick ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a twelve month low of $23.30 and a twelve month high of $66.06. The company’s 50 day moving average is $49.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.96. The stock has a market cap of $3.61 billion, a P/E ratio of -45.98 and a beta of 2.20.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 2nd. The company reported ($0.50) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $100.32 million. Twist Bioscience’s quarterly revenue was up 16.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -1.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on TWST shares. Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Evercore raised their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, March 27th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.13.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience during the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 70.6% during the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 442 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC grew its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 562.7% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 906 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 68.9% during the fourth quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 571 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI purchased a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience during the third quarter worth approximately $46,000.

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.