Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Trading Up 10.2% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) were up 10.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $53.96 and last traded at $54.5270. Approximately 782,925 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 41% from the average daily volume of 1,333,002 shares. The stock had previously closed at $49.50.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on TWST shares. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Leerink Partners upgraded Twist Bioscience from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Evercore upped their target price on Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $56.57.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.79. The company has a market capitalization of $3.34 billion, a P/E ratio of -40.66 and a beta of 2.22. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.49) by ($0.22). The business had revenue of $110.72 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $107.64 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 19.85% and a negative return on equity of 26.73%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.66) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -1.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Jan Johannessen sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.12, for a total transaction of $673,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 17,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $996,354.48. This represents a 40.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 8,061 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.29, for a total value of $526,302.69. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 858,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,076,732.23. This represents a 0.93% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 46,551 shares of company stock valued at $2,566,533. 3.08% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TWST. Quarry LP acquired a new position in Twist Bioscience in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Twist Bioscience by 70.6% during the 3rd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 442 shares during the last quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Twist Bioscience during the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in Twist Bioscience during the first quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Strategic Advocates LLC grew its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 562.7% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 906 shares during the last quarter.

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.