Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) reported 28% revenue growth and positive adjusted EBITDA for its fiscal fourth quarter, as demand for DNA, proteins and data used in AI drug discovery helped drive a 22% increase in full-year sales.
The company forecast fiscal 2027 revenue of $550 million to $560 million, including $100 million from AI drug discovery customers. Executives said the outlook reflects programs and delivery schedules they can forecast with high confidence, while pointing to potential upside from additional customer programs and expanded capacity.
Fourth-quarter growth and profitability
Fourth-quarter revenue rose to $126.6 million from $99 million a year earlier and increased 7% sequentially. It was Twist’s 15th consecutive quarter of sequential revenue growth, Leproust said. Full-year revenue reached $459.4 million, up from $376.6 million in fiscal 2025.
Quarterly adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were positive $2.2 million, compared with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $35.9 million for the full year. Fourth-quarter gross margin increased to 53.1% from 51.3% a year earlier, while full-year gross margin rose to 52.4% from 50.7%.
Revenue from DNA synthesis and protein solutions increased 33% year over year to $61 million in the quarter. Next-generation sequencing, or NGS, applications revenue rose 24% to $65.7 million, driven by diagnostic customers.
Twist shipped 401,000 genes during the quarter and approximately 1.3 million for the year. Leproust said gene volume was growing faster than revenue partly because of a shift toward shorter antibody-related genes, which carry lower prices because the company charges per base.
AI drug discovery and capacity plans
Fiscal 2026 revenue from customers Twist identifies with AI drug discovery rose 175% to $59.1 million from $21.5 million, and orders more than doubled, Leproust said. The revenue is included in Twist’s therapeutics category, which grew 47% to $162.3 million for the year.
Leproust described a customer pattern in which initial pilot orders are followed by larger model-building orders and then recurring drug discovery projects. CFO Adam Laponis said Twist’s reported AI figure captures customers and orders it can clearly categorize, even as traditional pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers add AI programs.
Twist will continue disclosing AI drug discovery revenue through fiscal 2027, Leproust said. Laponis said the customer base has expanded across recent cohorts, although he noted some concentration and did not provide a current customer count.
The company is investing to handle expected demand across DNA synthesis, protein production and characterization. President and COO Patrick Finn said Twist has 10 DNA writers operating, with two installations planned in the coming months and four more on order. When all 16 are operating, the company expects capacity to manufacture more than 50 million pieces of DNA daily.
Twist plans approximately $150 million in capital expenditures over fiscal 2027 and 2028, plus more than $30 million in landlord-funded tenant improvements. The investments are expected to expand capacity within existing facilities to support more than $1 billion in annual revenue at scale, Laponis said. Twist ended fiscal 2026 with $582 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, including $424.8 million in net proceeds from a public offering and at-the-market sales.
Diagnostics and outlook
Twist recently launched MRD Express, a product for personalized panels used in tumor-informed molecular residual disease testing. Such tests seek to detect traces of cancer remaining after treatment. Leproust said the product can deliver a bespoke panel in 24 hours, compared with a previous five-day process.
Laponis said MRD contributed one to two points of growth in fiscal 2026 and remains in the early stages of commercial adoption. He said the company does not expect the percentage growth rate to slow in fiscal 2027, with dollar growth expanding more rapidly.
For fiscal 2027, Twist expects gross margin of approximately 52.5% to 53%, positive adjusted EBITDA and about $75 million in capital expenditures, excluding landlord-funded improvements. First-quarter revenue is forecast at $130 million to $132 million, with both major product groups expected to grow more than 25% year over year.
Laponis said new capacity will add depreciation and manufacturing costs before it reaches planned utilization, slowing the pace of margin expansion. He maintained that Twist has a path to 60% gross margin in the future, while emphasizing revenue growth and gross profit dollars.
Leproust also described nucleic acid therapeutics, including materials for investigational mRNA therapies, as a longer-term opportunity. She said very little revenue from that area is included in the fiscal 2027 outlook.
About Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST)
Twist Bioscience Corporation is a biotechnology company that uses a silicon-based platform to manufacture synthetic DNA. Its technology supports the production of many DNA sequences in parallel for research and commercial applications. The company provides synthetic genes, gene fragments and oligonucleotide pools, as well as tools for next-generation sequencing, including target-enrichment products. Through its biopharma business, Twist also offers antibody discovery and related services to support the development of therapeutics.
