Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Stock Price Down 12.1% Following Analyst Downgrade

Twist Bioscience Co. (NASDAQ:TWST) shares traded down 12.1% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $58.00 to $45.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Twist Bioscience traded as low as $35.37 and last traded at $35.41. 162,171 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 969,972 shares. The stock had previously closed at $40.27.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective 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. Guggenheim set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.80.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Emily M. Leproust sold 1,726 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.68, for a total transaction of $71,939.68. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 660,966 shares in the company, valued at $27,549,062.88. This trade represents a 0.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Patrick John Finn sold 2,422 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.17, for a total transaction of $121,511.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 272,044 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,648,447.48. This trade represents a 0.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,796 shares of company stock worth $1,077,383. Insiders own 3.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Twist Bioscience

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,807,183 shares of the company’s stock worth $269,860,000 after buying an additional 189,791 shares during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 5,595,865 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,040,000 after acquiring an additional 237,772 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 19.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,167,353 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,101,000 after acquiring an additional 526,028 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 54.6% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,505,753 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,972,000 after acquiring an additional 532,040 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,374,667 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,895,000 after acquiring an additional 6,908 shares during the last quarter.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $44.66. The firm has a market cap of $2.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.49 and a beta of 2.34.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 3rd. The company reported ($0.53) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.62) by $0.09. The company had revenue of $88.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.96 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 59.76% and a negative return on equity of 32.69%. Twist Bioscience’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.75) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Twist Bioscience Co. will post -2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.