# Twist Bioscience (TWST.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/TWST

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:32:36.935Z. Financial observations: FY2017–FY2026.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $144.49 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 0 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- more than 2 net loss years

- negative average operating margin

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 0

- Years with a net loss: 10

- Operating margin variation: 0.88×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -5.43×

- FY2018: -2.77×

- FY2019: -2.00×

- FY2020: -1.55×

- FY2021: -1.15×

- FY2022: -1.22×

- FY2023: -0.89×

- FY2024: -0.71×

- FY2025: -0.36×

- LTM to Jun 2026: -0.32×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: -86.7%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -318.3%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: -12.9 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 37.8%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 50.7%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 12.9%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -90.3%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -211.1%

- FY2018: -318.3%

- FY2019: -418.0%

- FY2020: -136.4%

- FY2021: -84.1%

- FY2022: -67.0%

- FY2023: -58.1%

- FY2024: -89.2%

- FY2025: -36.4%

- LTM to Jun 2026: -37.5%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- incremental invested capital return below threshold

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: -$869M

- Net income, five-year total: -$846M

- Return on incremental invested capital: -31.4%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: 0.4 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: 4.0 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 19.2%

Chart: Owner earnings · five years; fiscal year observations.

- FY2022: -$270M

- FY2023: -$203M

- FY2024: -$182M

- FY2025: -$78M

- LTM to Jun 2026: -$137M

### management: fail

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks unrelated to price (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: -318.3% vs -58.1%

- Per-share earnings: -3.16 to -3.60 (three-year endpoint medians)

- per-share value declined or ends nonpositive

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 8.8%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 8.8%

- Per-share value change: -$0.44

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: -$3.16

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: -$3.60

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): -0.54

- Average buyback yield: 0.2%

- Buyback history: 6 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- ROIC, first three-year median: -318.3%

- ROIC, last three-year median: -58.1%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -$3.16

- FY2018: -$2.61

- FY2019: -$3.92

- FY2020: -$3.57

- FY2021: -$3.15

- FY2022: -$4.04

- FY2023: -$3.60

- FY2024: -$3.60

- FY2025: -$1.30

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -4.7%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.36×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.20×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -9.4%

- FY2018: -4.4%

- FY2019: -10.6%

- FY2020: 0.6%

- FY2021: -5.7%

- FY2022: -9.7%

- FY2023: -8.0%

- FY2024: -23.5%

- FY2025: -4.7%

## Holders

- [Dan Davidowitz](https://gigainvestors.com/pcm): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

Down 25% since Sep 2026 · "Twist Bioscience outlines 13–15.5% revenue growth target for 2026 as AI-driven orders accelerate" (seekingalpha.com, Nov 2025) · sales +14.7%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:44.559Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

- 2025-11-14: Twist Bioscience outlines 13–15.5% revenue growth target for 2026 as AI-driven orders accelerate ([seekingalpha.com](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4522430-twist-bioscience-outlines-13-15_5-percent-revenue-growth-target-for-2026-as-ai-driven-orders?utm_source=feed_news_all&utm_medium=referral&feed_item_type=news))

- 2026-02-02: Twist Bioscience outlines $435M–$440M 2026 revenue target while accelerating AI-enabled discovery investments ([seekingalpha.com](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4545647-twist-bioscience-outlines-435m-440m-2026-revenue-target-while-accelerating-ai-enabled?utm_source=feed_news_all&utm_medium=referral&feed_item_type=news))

- 2026-09-08: Twist Bioscience (TWST) Rallied as AI and Pharma Drive DNA Demand ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/healthcare/articles/twist-bioscience-twst-rallied-ai-125315032.html))

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales +14.7%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1581280/000158128025000025/twst-20250930.htm; observed 2025-11-17.

- FY2017: $11M 

- FY2018: $25M 

- FY2019: $54M 

- FY2020: $90M 

- FY2021: $132M 

- FY2022: $204M 

- FY2023: $245M 

- FY2024: $313M 

- FY2025: $377M 

- FY2026: $432M 

### Gross margin · FY2026

gross margin 52%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1581280/000158128025000025/twst-20250930.htm; observed 2025-11-17.

- FY2019: 12.8% 

- FY2020: 31.8% 

- FY2021: 39.1% 

- FY2022: 41.4% 

- FY2023: 36.6% 

- FY2024: 42.6% 

- FY2025: 50.7% 

- FY2026: 52.0% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in biotechnology; annual sales are USD 376.6 million.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1581280/000158128025000025/twst-20250930.htm (filed 2025-11-17); FY2025: revenue 376572000; grossProfit 191002000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); TWST.US: Twist Bioscience Corporation manufactures and sells synthetic DNA-based products. It 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. It provides NGS tools comprising library preparation kits, human exome kits, and fixed and custom panels, as well as alliance panels used within diagnostic tests for various indications, population genetics research and biomarker discovery, translational research, microbiology, and applied markets research; and methylation detection kits for cancer, and rare and inherited disease study, as well as fast hybridization and full RNA sequencing workflow solution. In addition, it offers synthetic SARS-CoV-2 RNA reference sequences as positive controls to develop both NGS and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assays; synthetic monkeypox controls; and various respiratory viral controls, including for influenzas, respiratory syncytial virus, rhinoviruses, SARS, MERS, and coronaviruses. Further, it offers SARS-CoV-2 Research Panels, such as the Twist Respiratory Virus Panel and the Pan-Viral Research Panel, for the detection of disease in a research setting; precision DNA libraries for antibody engineering, affinity maturation, and humanization; and antibody optimization solution to enable simultaneous optimization of multiple characteristics of a given antibody. The company has a strategic collaboration with bitBiome Inc and Lilly TuneLab. The company was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 36.6% to 50.7% during 2023–25; it lost 86.7% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2025-11-17); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 36.6%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2025-11-17); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 42.6%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1581280/000158128025000025/twst-20250930.htm (filed 2025-11-17); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 50.7%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2025-11-17); 10-year return on capital observations [[2017,-2.111070596298835],[2018,-3.1825069940051383],[2019,-4.180432668935342],[2020,-1.3644507052673112],[2021,-0.8411135975460978],[2022,-0.6702368849610586],[2023,-0.5809988925652861],[2024,-0.8923377407227436],[2025,-0.3640935089006971],[2026,-0.3749312595807713]]; median -0.8667256691344207. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid no dividends in 9 years; bought back USD 16000 of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2025-11-17); Dividend observations: [[2017,0],[2018,0],[2019,0],[2020,0],[2021,0],[2022,0],[2023,0],[2024,0],[2025,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1581280/000158128025000025/twst-20250930.htm (filed 2025-11-17); FY2025: cash repurchases 16000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 0.9% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); TWST.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 0.906 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price is 22.9 times annual sales; cash earnings are negative.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2025-11-17); Closing price 144.49 USD; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2025 annual sales per share 6.296348314606742; price multiple 22.948222172652244. FY2025 cash earnings/share -1.29865569823435. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2018-10: $14.00 per share

- 2018-11: $26.46 per share

- 2018-12: $23.09 per share

- 2019-01: $23.13 per share

- 2019-02: $21.77 per share

- 2019-03: $23.18 per share

- 2019-04: $23.66 per share

- 2019-05: $25.81 per share

- 2019-06: $29.01 per share

- 2019-07: $33.72 per share

- 2019-08: $29.03 per share

- 2019-09: $23.88 per share

- 2019-10: $23.82 per share

- 2019-11: $23.83 per share

- 2019-12: $21.00 per share

- 2020-01: $24.84 per share

- 2020-02: $30.62 per share

- 2020-03: $30.58 per share

- 2020-04: $32.71 per share

- 2020-05: $37.95 per share

- 2020-06: $45.30 per share

- 2020-07: $56.04 per share

- 2020-08: $69.93 per share

- 2020-09: $75.97 per share

- 2020-10: $76.64 per share

- 2020-11: $111.74 per share

- 2020-12: $141.29 per share

- 2021-01: $164.54 per share

- 2021-02: $137.64 per share

- 2021-03: $123.86 per share

- 2021-04: $134.19 per share

- 2021-05: $107.31 per share

- 2021-06: $133.25 per share

- 2021-07: $123.05 per share

- 2021-08: $113.21 per share

- 2021-09: $106.97 per share

- 2021-10: $118.80 per share

- 2021-11: $95.50 per share

- 2021-12: $77.39 per share

- 2022-01: $59.42 per share

- 2022-02: $55.94 per share

- 2022-03: $49.38 per share

- 2022-04: $28.84 per share

- 2022-05: $34.04 per share

- 2022-06: $34.96 per share

- 2022-07: $43.74 per share

- 2022-08: $40.12 per share

- 2022-09: $35.24 per share

- 2022-10: $32.83 per share

- 2022-11: $27.35 per share

- 2022-12: $23.81 per share

- 2023-01: $28.69 per share

- 2023-02: $19.46 per share

- 2023-03: $15.08 per share

- 2023-04: $12.48 per share

- 2023-05: $15.15 per share

- 2023-06: $20.46 per share

- 2023-07: $24.34 per share

- 2023-08: $21.99 per share

- 2023-09: $20.26 per share

- 2023-10: $15.76 per share

- 2023-11: $24.05 per share

- 2023-12: $36.86 per share

- 2024-01: $32.40 per share

- 2024-02: $39.29 per share

- 2024-03: $34.31 per share

- 2024-04: $31.23 per share

- 2024-05: $41.90 per share

- 2024-06: $49.28 per share

- 2024-07: $55.81 per share

- 2024-08: $43.24 per share

- 2024-09: $45.18 per share

- 2024-10: $40.36 per share

- 2024-11: $49.18 per share

- 2024-12: $46.47 per share

- 2025-01: $52.37 per share

- 2025-02: $38.82 per share

- 2025-03: $39.26 per share

- 2025-04: $38.32 per share

- 2025-05: $29.30 per share

- 2025-06: $36.79 per share

- 2025-07: $33.57 per share

- 2025-08: $26.97 per share

- 2025-09: $28.14 per share

- 2025-10: $32.89 per share

- 2025-11: $32.01 per share

- 2025-12: $31.72 per share

- 2026-01: $41.07 per share

- 2026-02: $46.92 per share

- 2026-03: $47.52 per share

- 2026-04: $58.45 per share

- 2026-05: $66.87 per share

- 2026-06: $102.88 per share

- 2026-07: $91.55 per share

- 2026-08: $139.00 per share

- 2026-09: $193.24 per share

- 2026-10: $144.49 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1581280/000158128025000025/twst-20250930.htm); period 2025-09-30, filed 2025-11-17.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.