Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Hits New 52-Week High – Should You Buy?

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $140.95 and last traded at $135.2480, with a volume of 613748 shares. The stock had previously closed at $116.10.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TWST has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays lifted their target price on Twist Bioscience from $65.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Leerink Partners set a $110.00 price target on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $113.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $60.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.30.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $96.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $68.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.67. The stock has a market cap of $8.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -62.61 and a beta of 2.14.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported ($0.56) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.51) by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $118.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $114.55 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 28.64% and a negative net margin of 31.66%.Twist Bioscience’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. Analysts expect that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Twist Bioscience

In related news, insider Dennis Cho sold 14,205 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.75, for a total transaction of $1,274,898.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 105,141 shares in the company, valued at $9,436,404.75. This represents a 11.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Paula Green sold 291 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.32, for a total transaction of $25,410.12. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 120,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,514,550.48. This represents a 0.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 151,529 shares of company stock worth $17,708,772 over the last three months. 3.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Twist Bioscience

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. ARK Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 12.4% in the 4th quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 7,559,495 shares of the company’s stock valued at $239,787,000 after acquiring an additional 832,687 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its position in Twist Bioscience by 43.7% during the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 5,954,429 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,874,000 after acquiring an additional 1,812,146 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Twist Bioscience in the 2nd quarter worth about $600,191,000. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its position in Twist Bioscience by 31.7% in the fourth quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 5,377,991 shares of the company’s stock valued at $170,590,000 after purchasing an additional 1,295,672 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in Twist Bioscience by 17.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,627,818 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,074,000 after purchasing an additional 538,755 shares during the last quarter.

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.