Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Stock Price Down 4.4% on Insider Selling

Shares of Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) traded down 4.4% during mid-day trading on Monday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $29.89 and last traded at $29.82. 511,249 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 60% from the average session volume of 1,276,625 shares. The stock had previously closed at $31.19.

Specifically, CFO Adam Laponis sold 2,517 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.92, for a total transaction of $82,859.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 91,525 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,013,003. This trade represents a 2.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Adam Laponis sold 3,000 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.15, for a total value of $93,450.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 94,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,929,408.30. This trade represents a 3.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In other news, insider Dennis Cho sold 3,876 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.19, for a total transaction of $124,768.44. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 98,710 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,474.90. This trade represents a 3.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Twist Bioscience from $46.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on Twist Bioscience from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.50.

Twist Bioscience Stock Down 3.4%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 3.90 and a quick ratio of 3.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.82 billion, a PE ratio of -20.79 and a beta of 2.38. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $27.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.46.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The company reported ($0.47) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.54) by $0.07. Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 29.03% and a negative net margin of 23.51%.The firm had revenue of $96.06 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $95.52 million. Twist Bioscience has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Twist Bioscience

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TWST. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in Twist Bioscience by 186.1% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 2,442,262 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,883,000 after purchasing an additional 1,588,587 shares during the period. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its stake in Twist Bioscience by 114.3% in the second quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,385,942 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,779,000 after purchasing an additional 1,272,732 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Twist Bioscience in the first quarter worth $31,960,000. ARK Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Twist Bioscience by 11.5% in the first quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 6,241,595 shares of the company’s stock worth $245,045,000 after purchasing an additional 645,730 shares during the period. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in Twist Bioscience by 934.0% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 628,241 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,113,000 after purchasing an additional 567,481 shares during the period.

About Twist Bioscience

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.