Guggenheim Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) Stock

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) had its price objective boosted by research analysts at Guggenheim from $50.00 to $55.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Guggenheim’s target price indicates a potential upside of 15.74% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on TWST. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Friday. Evercore lifted their target price on Twist Bioscience from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 price target on Twist Bioscience in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Twist Bioscience from $39.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.50.

Twist Bioscience Stock Performance

TWST stock opened at $47.52 on Monday. Twist Bioscience has a 1 year low of $23.30 and a 1 year high of $57.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -37.13 and a beta of 2.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 3.37 and a current ratio of 3.78. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $46.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.94.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Robert F. Werner sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.65, for a total transaction of $319,550.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 58,738 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,681,389.70. The trade was a 10.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Dennis Cho sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.93, for a total value of $249,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 138,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,919,349.33. This trade represents a 3.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 48,190 shares of company stock valued at $2,234,695. 3.08% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Twist Bioscience

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TWST. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 43.7% in the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 5,954,429 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,874,000 after purchasing an additional 1,812,146 shares during the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 71.1% during the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 4,082,319 shares of the company’s stock valued at $114,876,000 after purchasing an additional 1,696,377 shares during the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 26.7% during the third quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 6,410,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $180,403,000 after purchasing an additional 1,349,867 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 151.5% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,793,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,479,000 after buying an additional 1,080,722 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Twist Bioscience by 12.4% during the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 7,559,495 shares of the company’s stock worth $239,787,000 after buying an additional 832,687 shares in the last quarter.

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.