Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Grows Stake in Twist Bioscience Corporation $TWST

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) by 26.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,410,900 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,349,867 shares during the quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned approximately 10.62% of Twist Bioscience worth $180,403,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 70.6% during the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,068 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 442 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Twist Bioscience in the second quarter worth approximately $97,000. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 61.4% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the company’s stock worth $122,000 after purchasing an additional 1,648 shares in the last quarter. AXQ Capital LP acquired a new position in Twist Bioscience in the 2nd quarter valued at $226,000. Finally, Corton Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Twist Bioscience in the 2nd quarter valued at $244,000.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TWST has been the subject of a number of research reports. Evercore upped their target price on shares of Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $39.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 target price on Twist Bioscience in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.88.

Insider Transactions at Twist Bioscience

In other news, SVP Paula Green sold 1,194 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.58, for a total value of $55,616.52. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 165,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,706,428.10. The trade was a 0.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Adam Laponis sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $350,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 130,031 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,501,550. The trade was a 5.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 36,609 shares of company stock worth $1,665,151 in the last three months. Company insiders own 3.08% of the company’s stock.

Twist Bioscience Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of TWST opened at $48.71 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $41.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.75. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 12-month low of $23.30 and a 12-month high of $57.88. The company has a current ratio of 3.78, a quick ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market cap of $2.99 billion, a P/E ratio of -38.05 and a beta of 2.24.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The company reported ($0.50) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.48) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $103.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $100.32 million. Twist Bioscience had a negative net margin of 19.56% and a negative return on equity of 27.16%. The company’s revenue was up 16.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -2.12 earnings per share for the current year.

About Twist Bioscience

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.