Twist Bioscience slides as insider sale filings and partnership skepticism pressure sentiment

Twist Bioscience Corporation (TWST) is down 6.8% today. Here is some analysis on what might have caused this price movement.

Analysis: The most likely driver appears to be a mix of insider-sale headlines and a cooling sentiment shift after a recent analyst note questioned how much strategic value Twist may ultimately get from its Lilly TuneLab collaboration. There does not appear to be a fresh earnings miss or major operational setback behind the move, so this looks more like a valuation and sentiment reset than a change in the company’s latest reported fundamentals.

Details:

Twist’s latest quarterly update in early August showed record third-quarter revenue of $118.4 million, gross margin above 52%, and raised full-year revenue guidance, which suggests the selloff was not triggered by a newly disclosed deterioration in operating results.

The company also completed an upsized $300 million common-stock offering in August, a reminder that dilution remains part of the story even as growth improves.

A Form 4 filed on October 5 showed CEO Emily Leproust sold 655 shares on October 1 under a prearranged Rule 10b5-1 plan and 45,736 shares on October 2 in a sell-to-cover transaction tied to tax withholding on vested stock awards.

This could be because investors are reassessing a stock that had already rallied sharply, making insider-sale activity and a more skeptical Wall Street read on recent partnership news enough to trigger profit-taking.

Sources:

Twist Bioscience Investor Relations, SEC, TipRanks

Disclaimer: This price movement analysis was generated with the help of AI. Please double-check the information provided for mistakes.

$TWST Insider Trading Activity

$TWST insiders have traded $TWST stock on the open market 105 times in the past 6 months. Of those trades, 0 have been purchases and 105 have been sales.

Here’s a breakdown of recent trading of $TWST stock by insiders over the last 6 months:

EMILY M. LEPROUST (Chief Executive Officer) has made 0 purchases and 44 sales selling 666,772 shares for an estimated $92,340,600.
PATRICK JOHN FINN (President and COO) has made 0 purchases and 14 sales selling 122,566 shares for an estimated $15,618,877.
DENNIS CHO (See Remarks) has made 0 purchases and 12 sales selling 59,909 shares for an estimated $6,869,436.
PAULA GREEN (SVP of Human Resources) has made 0 purchases and 11 sales selling 43,609 shares for an estimated $4,711,060.
ADAM LAPONIS (Chief Financial Officer) has made 0 purchases and 8 sales selling 28,037 shares for an estimated $2,943,497.
ROBERT CHESS sold 18,417 shares for an estimated $2,042,261
ROBERT F. WERNER (Chief Accounting Officer) has made 0 purchases and 10 sales selling 6,421 shares for an estimated $726,660.
JAN JOHANNESSEN sold 12,000 shares for an estimated $673,440
KATRYN BLAKE sold 2,240 shares for an estimated $275,251
MELISSA A. STAROVASNIK has made 0 purchases and 3 sales selling 3,500 shares for an estimated $231,435.

To track insider transactions, check out Quiver Quantitative's insider trading dashboard. You can access data on insider stock transactions through the Quiver Quantitative API insider transaction endpoint.

$TWST Hedge Fund Activity

We have seen 172 institutional investors add shares of $TWST stock to their portfolio, and 132 decrease their positions in their most recent quarter.

Here are some of the largest recent moves:

WILLIAM BLAIR INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, LLC removed 3,779,835 shares (-63.5%) from their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $388,869,424
PRICE T ROWE ASSOCIATES INC /MD/ added 3,564,347 shares (+5069.8%) to their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $366,700,019
EDGEPOINT INVESTMENT GROUP INC. removed 2,856,356 shares (-53.1%) from their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $293,861,905
FMR LLC added 2,813,099 shares (+148.8%) to their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $289,411,625
ARK INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LLC removed 1,792,930 shares (-28.3%) from their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $184,456,638
ARTISAN PARTNERS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP removed 1,565,760 shares (-24.6%) from their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $161,085,388
D. E. SHAW & CO., INC. added 1,158,024 shares (+4198.6%) to their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $119,137,509

To track hedge funds' stock portfolios, check out Quiver Quantitative's institutional holdings dashboard. You can access data on hedge funds moves and 13F filings through the Quiver Quantitative API 13F endpoint.

$TWST Price Targets

Multiple analysts have issued price targets for $TWST recently. We have seen 8 analysts offer price targets for $TWST in the last 6 months, with a median target of $89.5.

Here are some recent targets:

Vijay Kumar from Evercore ISI Group set a target price of $102.0 on 07/06/2026
Subbu Nambi from Guggenheim set a target price of $107.0 on 06/29/2026
Luke Sergott from Barclays set a target price of $95.0 on 06/24/2026
Brendan Smith from TD Cowen set a target price of $89.0 on 06/15/2026
Kyle Mikson from Canaccord Genuity set a target price of $90.0 on 06/15/2026
David Westenberg from Piper Sandler set a target price of $85.0 on 06/11/2026
Catherine Ramsey from Baird set a target price of $65.0 on 05/05/2026

This article is not financial advice. See Quiver Quantitative's disclaimers for more information. Note that there may be inaccuracies due to mistakes in ticker-mapping, and other anomalies.