Baillie Gifford & Co. Sells 56,802 Shares of Twist Bioscience Co. (NASDAQ:TWST)

Baillie Gifford & Co. lowered its stake in Twist Bioscience Co. (NASDAQ:TWST) by 6.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 777,537 shares of the company’s stock after selling 56,802 shares during the quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. owned about 1.31% of Twist Bioscience worth $36,132,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 91,393 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,247,000 after buying an additional 2,339 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 56.4% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 80.2% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 680,778 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,636,000 after buying an additional 302,884 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 12,586 shares of the company’s stock valued at $585,000 after buying an additional 1,318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 71.4% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,942 shares of the company’s stock valued at $137,000 after buying an additional 1,226 shares in the last quarter.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

Shares of TWST opened at $47.59 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.84 billion, a PE ratio of -14.08 and a beta of 1.87. The company’s 50-day moving average is $48.38 and its 200-day moving average is $45.74. Twist Bioscience Co. has a fifty-two week low of $27.41 and a fifty-two week high of $60.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 4.96 and a quick ratio of 4.54.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The company reported ($0.53) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.62) by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $88.70 million for 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%. The business’s revenue was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.75) EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Twist Bioscience Co. will post -2.12 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Robert Chess sold 3,504 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.85, for a total value of $181,682.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 21,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,122,085.85. The trade was a 13.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Dennis Cho sold 806 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.35, for a total transaction of $39,776.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 112,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,538,106.35. The trade was a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 37,180 shares of company stock worth $1,821,971 over the last three months. Insiders own 3.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on TWST shares. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $54.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $48.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $58.00 price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Twist Bioscience presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.80.

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.