Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Trading Down 4.1% Following Insider Selling

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST)’s stock price fell 4.1% during trading on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $33.58 and last traded at $33.6320. 39,548 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 97% from the average session volume of 1,346,963 shares. The stock had previously closed at $35.06.

Specifically, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 1,605 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.56, for a total value of $55,468.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 874,313 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,216,257.28. This represents a 0.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Stephens assumed coverage on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Monday, November 3rd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $41.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Twist Bioscience from $46.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Barclays upped their target price on Twist Bioscience from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Monday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.88.

Twist Bioscience Trading Down 2.1%

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -25.29 and a beta of 2.24. The company has a current ratio of 3.64, a quick ratio of 3.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a fifty day moving average of $31.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.22.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 14th. The company reported ($0.45) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.40) by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $99.01 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $97.40 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 20.63% and a negative return on equity of 27.40%. On average, research analysts expect that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.12 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience in the third quarter worth $28,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 70.6% in the 3rd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 442 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI bought a new position in shares of Twist Bioscience during the 3rd quarter worth about $46,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 15.0% during the second quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,315 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,000 after buying an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience in the second quarter valued at about $97,000.

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.