Stephens Begins Coverage on Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST)

Research analysts at Stephens assumed coverage on shares of Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm set an “overweight” rating and a $41.00 price target on the stock. Stephens’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 36.39% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $46.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.80.

Twist Bioscience Stock Down 4.8%

TWST stock opened at $30.06 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.60, a current ratio of 3.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $29.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.74. The company has a market cap of $1.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -20.73 and a beta of 2.43. Twist Bioscience has a twelve month low of $24.07 and a twelve month high of $55.33.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 4th. The company reported ($0.47) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.54) by $0.07. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 29.03% and a negative net margin of 23.51%.The company had revenue of $96.06 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $95.52 million. Analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience will post -2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Twist Bioscience

In related news, CFO Adam Laponis sold 5,517 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.44, for a total transaction of $173,454.48. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 111,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,490,091.52. The trade was a 4.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Dennis Cho sold 6,515 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.44, for a total transaction of $204,831.60. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 121,713 shares in the company, valued at $3,826,656.72. This trade represents a 5.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 115,715 shares of company stock worth $3,650,554 over the last quarter. 3.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TWST. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 15.0% in the second quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,315 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 68.1% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 748 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 23,062 shares of the company’s stock worth $848,000 after purchasing an additional 352 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 54,187 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,994,000 after purchasing an additional 442 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 6,031 shares of the company’s stock worth $222,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares during the period.

About Twist Bioscience

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.