Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Shares Down 3.7% – Here’s Why

Twist Bioscience Co. (NASDAQ:TWST) shares fell 3.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $50.61 and last traded at $50.78. 257,980 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 65% from the average session volume of 747,018 shares. The stock had previously closed at $52.75.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Leerink Partners upped their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 target price for the company. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 price target on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $48.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Twist Bioscience has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.80.

Twist Bioscience Stock Down 1.3 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.49 and a beta of 1.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $48.52 and a 200-day moving average of $46.23.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The company reported ($0.53) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.62) by $0.09. Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 66.69% and a negative return on equity of 32.27%. The business had revenue of $88.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.96 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.75) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Twist Bioscience Co. will post -2.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Twist Bioscience

In related news, COO Patrick John Finn sold 2,422 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.17, for a total transaction of $121,511.74. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 272,044 shares in the company, valued at $13,648,447.48. This represents a 0.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Adam Laponis sold 5,886 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction on Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.26, for a total transaction of $254,628.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 110,096 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,762,752.96. This represents a 5.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 80,407 shares of company stock worth $3,757,443. Corporate insiders own 3.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TWST. Handelsbanken Fonder AB purchased a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience in the fourth quarter valued at about $855,000. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 21.1% in the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 62,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,883,000 after buying an additional 10,800 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 21,028 shares of the company’s stock valued at $977,000 after buying an additional 1,410 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Twist Bioscience by 81.9% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 374,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,405,000 after buying an additional 168,687 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its position in Twist Bioscience by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 50,803 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,361,000 after buying an additional 5,701 shares in the last quarter.

Twist Bioscience Company Profile

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.