Analysts Set Twist Bioscience Co. (NASDAQ:TWST) Target Price at $54.40

Shares of Twist Bioscience Co. (NASDAQ:TWST) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $54.40.

A number of research firms have weighed in on TWST. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $48.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Twist Bioscience in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Twist Bioscience from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Barclays set a $58.00 price target on Twist Bioscience and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd.

Twist Bioscience Stock Down 2.9 %

TWST stock opened at $40.36 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $2.41 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.94 and a beta of 2.15. The company has a current ratio of 4.96, a quick ratio of 4.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $45.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $45.33. Twist Bioscience has a 1-year low of $27.41 and a 1-year high of $60.90.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The company reported ($0.53) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.62) by $0.09. The company had revenue of $88.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.96 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 32.69% and a negative net margin of 59.76%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.75) EPS. Analysts expect that Twist Bioscience will post -2.12 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Twist Bioscience

In other news, Director Robert Chess sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $250,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,641 shares in the company, valued at $832,050. The trade was a 23.10 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Adam Laponis sold 5,886 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.26, for a total transaction of $254,628.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 110,096 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,762,752.96. The trade was a 5.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 33,799 shares of company stock worth $1,593,944. 3.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. First Light Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience in the 4th quarter valued at about $56,984,000. Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in Twist Bioscience by 15,927.8% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 846,107 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,319,000 after purchasing an additional 840,828 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in Twist Bioscience by 54.6% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,505,753 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,972,000 after purchasing an additional 532,040 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Twist Bioscience by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,167,353 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,101,000 after buying an additional 526,028 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 188.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 797,737 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,042,000 after buying an additional 521,272 shares during the last quarter.

Twist Bioscience Company Profile

Twist Bioscience Corporation engages in the manufacture and sale of synthetic DNA-based products. The company offers synthetic genes and gene fragments used in product development for therapeutics, diagnostics, chemicals/materials, food/agriculture, data storage, and various applications within academic research by biotech, pharma, industrial chemical, and agricultural companies, as well as academic labs; Oligo pools used in targeted NGS, CRISPR gene editing, mutagenesis experiments, DNA origami, DNA computing, data storage in DNA, and other applications; and immunoglobulin G proteins for customers focused on the pursuit of drug discovery and development.