Analyst Lifts TWST to $190 as Insiders Sold at $189
TD Cowen raised its Twist Bioscience price target to $190 on October 14 — a day after five company executives, including the CEO and COO, had jointly sold shares at $188.88 just twelve days earlier, w
Analyst Lifts TWST to $190 as Insiders Sold at $189
NEW YORK, October 14 —
A $190 analyst price target issued October 14 for Twist Bioscience Corporation (TWST) lands within a dollar of where six company executives collectively sold $19 million twelve days earlier, with the stock now trading 20% below that exit. The upgrade arrives against a -98.8% EPS miss and $78.24 million in net insider selling with zero purchases over 90 days.
- TWST trades at $150.58, 20% below the $188.88 insider exit price and below TD Cowen's new $190 target.
Six Executives, One Exit Price
Twist Bioscience makes synthetic DNA products, including synthetic genes, oligo pools, and library preparation kits used across biotech drug discovery, diagnostics development, and food and agriculture applications. On October 2, six executives sold shares at $188.88 in a single day: CEO Emily Leproust's 45,736 shares generated $8.6 million, President and COO Patrick Finn added $4.9 million, and CFO Adam Laponis, SVP Paula Green, Chief Accounting Officer Robert Werner, and Dennis Cho completed the sweep. Leproust returned October 5, selling 4,548 more shares at $200 to $207. TD Cowen's aforementioned target, set twelve days after that exit, is a buy signal calibrated to where the company's own leadership was selling.
Revenue Growth Isn't the Problem
The problem sits below Twist's gross margin. Trailing twelve-month revenue reached $430 million, up 23.2% year-over-year, and the company's 52.0% gross margin is the envy of most synthetic biology peers. But the four-quarter EPS trend tells a different story: beats of 10.0% and 3.8% gave way to a 13.2% miss, then the -98.8% collapse in the most recent quarter. That trajectory, paired with a June 2026 shelf registration and a multi-tranche equity raise in August, shows the revenue line is not yet self-funding. Running those inputs through a DCF calculator illustrates why a $9.98 billion market cap requires earnings momentum the company hasn't yet shown.
| Ticker | Mkt cap | Fwd P/E | 52-wk |
|---|---|---|---|
| TWST | $9.9B | n/a | +372.3% |
| TXG | $9.5B | 951.9x | +503.8% |
| PACB | $614M | n/a | +17.8% |
| BEAM | $2.4B | n/a | -10.2% |
| CDNA | $3.4B | 50.7x | +345.1% |
| NTLA | $1.6B | n/a | -54.1% |
What the Next Quarter Must Prove
The stock at $150.58 trades 20% below where executives exited and at a discount to every major insider sale price since September. For Cowen's upgrade to pay off, TWST would need to recover that gap and show earnings that actually approach consensus, a combination requiring the next quarterly report to break the deterioration pattern. The thesis changes if EPS surprise returns to positive territory; it deepens if the August equity raise has not yet closed the gap between revenue growth and cash consumption. Run the free Twist Bioscience Corporation deep-dive → before the next report lands.
Basis Report is independent research for informational purposes. It is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
TD Cowen raised its Twist Bioscience price target to $190 on October 14 — a day after five company executives, including the CEO and COO, had jointly sold shares at $188.88 just twelve days earlier, with the stock now trading at $150.58. The analyst's upgrade arrives precisely where insiders were exiting, against a backdrop of a near-100% EPS miss last quarter and $78.24 million in net insider selling with zero purchases over 90 days.