Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday. The stock had previously closed at $166.97, but opened at $158.26. Twist Bioscience shares last traded at $153.7760, with a volume of 1,016,013 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TWST has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Twist Bioscience from $85.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Leerink Partners boosted their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $160.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $107.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $90.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $126.18.

Twist Bioscience Trading Down 4.0%

The stock has a market cap of $10.05 billion, a P/E ratio of -72.48 and a beta of 2.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $140.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $94.39.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported ($0.56) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.51) by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $118.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $114.55 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 28.64% and a negative net margin of 31.66%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 23.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Twist Bioscience

In related news, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 45,736 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.88, for a total transaction of $8,638,615.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 567,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $107,153,135.04. The trade was a 7.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Adam Laponis sold 8,057 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.88, for a total value of $1,521,806.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 100,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,996,794.88. The trade was a 7.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 597,309 shares of company stock worth $92,690,311. 3.08% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Twist Bioscience

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TWST. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $600,191,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Twist Bioscience in the second quarter worth approximately $223,722,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in Twist Bioscience during the second quarter worth $94,922,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in Twist Bioscience during the first quarter worth $22,563,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Twist Bioscience during the 2nd quarter valued at $19,722,000.

Twist Bioscience Company Profile

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) is a biotechnology company that develops and manufactures synthetic DNA using a silicon-based production platform. Its technology is designed to enable the precise, high-throughput synthesis of DNA at smaller scale and with potentially lower material consumption than traditional methods.

The company provides synthetic DNA products and services for applications in drug discovery and development, biotechnology research, agriculture, industrial chemicals and other life sciences markets.