Twist Bioscience Corporation $TWST Shares Sold by First Light Asset Management LLC

First Light Asset Management LLC cut its stake in Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) by 23.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 878,848 shares of the company’s stock after selling 261,923 shares during the period. Twist Bioscience makes up approximately 3.7% of First Light Asset Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. First Light Asset Management LLC owned approximately 1.41% of Twist Bioscience worth $41,763,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Twist Bioscience by 43.7% in the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 5,954,429 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,874,000 after purchasing an additional 1,812,146 shares during the period. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 31.7% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 151.5% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,793,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,479,000 after purchasing an additional 1,080,722 shares during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 7,559,495 shares of the company’s stock valued at $239,787,000 after purchasing an additional 832,687 shares during the period. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 934.0% in the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 628,241 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,113,000 after buying an additional 567,481 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TWST has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays upped their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $65.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $68.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $90.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $60.00 to $107.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Evercore lowered shares of Twist Bioscience from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $102.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $90.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Twist Bioscience news, insider Dennis Cho sold 14,205 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.75, for a total transaction of $1,274,898.75. Following the sale, the insider owned 105,141 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,436,404.75. The trade was a 11.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Adam Laponis sold 2,399 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.33, for a total transaction of $226,297.67. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 110,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,402,335.08. This represents a 2.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 50,211 shares of company stock worth $4,199,331 over the last three months. Company insiders own 3.08% of the company’s stock.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:TWST opened at $90.27 on Monday. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a one year low of $23.30 and a one year high of $105.47. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $81.57 and a 200-day moving average of $60.29. The company has a market capitalization of $5.62 billion, a PE ratio of -67.87 and a beta of 2.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a current ratio of 2.70.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.49) by ($0.22). The company had revenue of $110.72 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.66) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Twist Bioscience 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.