Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Canaccord Genuity Group

Canaccord Genuity Group upgraded shares of Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Barclays increased their price target on Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. TD Cowen set a $89.00 target price on Twist Bioscience in a report on Monday. Piper Sandler started coverage on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Thursday. They set an “overweight” rating and a $85.00 target price for the company. Leerink Partners set a $80.00 price target on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, UBS Group set a $89.00 price target on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $71.60.

Twist Bioscience Trading Up 6.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:TWST opened at $80.79 on Monday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.93. Twist Bioscience has a 1 year low of $23.30 and a 1 year high of $82.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 2.70 and a quick ratio of 2.42. The company has a market capitalization of $5.03 billion, a P/E ratio of -60.74 and a beta of 2.23.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $107.64 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 26.73% and a negative net margin of 19.85%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.66) EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience will post -2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Twist Bioscience

In other news, Director Jan Johannessen sold 12,000 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.12, for a total transaction of $673,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 17,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $996,354.48. This trade represents a 40.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Adam Laponis sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $240,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 118,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,121,640. This represents a 3.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 33,170 shares of company stock valued at $1,948,964. 3.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of TWST. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 71.1% during the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 4,082,319 shares of the company’s stock valued at $114,876,000 after acquiring an additional 1,696,377 shares during the last quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 26.4% during the 3rd quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC now owns 1,194,883 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,624,000 after acquiring an additional 249,850 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 350.3% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 76,484 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,426,000 after acquiring an additional 59,500 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Twist Bioscience by 6.0% during the third quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,142,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $116,564,000 after purchasing an additional 235,679 shares during the period. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 51.0% in the third quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 114,268 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,216,000 after purchasing an additional 38,608 shares during the period.

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.