Insider Selling: Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Director Sells 1,000 Shares of Stock

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) Director Melissa Starovasnik sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.00, for a total transaction of $51,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 25,722 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,311,822. This trade represents a 3.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

NASDAQ TWST remained flat at $50.21 during trading hours on Friday. 970,699 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,121,877. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 3.78 and a quick ratio of 3.37. The company has a market capitalization of $3.08 billion, a PE ratio of -39.23 and a beta of 2.20. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $46.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.12. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 52 week low of $23.30 and a 52 week high of $57.88.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 19.56% and a negative return on equity of 27.16%. The company had revenue of $103.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $100.32 million. The company’s revenue was up 16.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.12 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Evercore raised their price target on Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 target price on Twist Bioscience in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Barclays raised their target price on Twist Bioscience from $39.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Twist Bioscience has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.50.

Institutional Trading of Twist Bioscience

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of TWST. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 11.8% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 40,373 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,585,000 after purchasing an additional 4,254 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 70,310 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,765,000 after purchasing an additional 3,181 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 932,978 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,629,000 after purchasing an additional 37,577 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its position in Twist Bioscience by 18.9% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 28,917 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,135,000 after purchasing an additional 4,591 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 22.0% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 110,286 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,057,000 after buying an additional 19,915 shares during the period.

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.