Marshall Wace LLP Buys 840,828 Shares of Twist Bioscience Co. (NASDAQ:TWST)

Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in Twist Bioscience Co. (NASDAQ:TWST) by 15,927.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 846,107 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 840,828 shares during the quarter. Marshall Wace LLP’s holdings in Twist Bioscience were worth $39,319,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of Twist Bioscience by 54.6% during the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,505,753 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,972,000 after buying an additional 532,040 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 302,884 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Twist Bioscience by 63.5% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 756,352 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,148,000 after purchasing an additional 293,751 shares during the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Twist Bioscience by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 5,595,865 shares of the company’s stock valued at $260,040,000 after purchasing an additional 237,772 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Twist Bioscience by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,807,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $269,860,000 after purchasing an additional 189,791 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Twist Bioscience from $48.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays decreased their target price on Twist Bioscience from $58.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Guggenheim set a $50.00 price target on Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, March 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Twist Bioscience from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.80.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

Shares of Twist Bioscience stock opened at $36.80 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.89 and a beta of 2.34. The company has a quick ratio of 4.62, a current ratio of 4.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.47. Twist Bioscience Co. has a 52 week low of $27.41 and a 52 week high of $60.90.

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

Insider Transactions at Twist Bioscience

In other Twist Bioscience news, Director Robert Chess sold 2,940 shares of Twist Bioscience stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.13, for a total value of $156,202.20. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 18,173 shares in the company, valued at approximately $965,531.49. The trade was a 13.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Patrick John Finn sold 2,422 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.17, for a total transaction of $121,511.74. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 272,044 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,648,447.48. The trade was a 0.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,796 shares of company stock valued at $1,077,383. 3.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.