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TWST Jumps As Twist Bioscience Lands Lilly AI TuneLab Deal

TIM SYKES•UPDATED SEP. 18, 2026, 4:38 PM ET
Reviewed by Bryce Tuoheyand Fact-checked by Matt Monaco

Twist Bioscience Corporation stocks have been trading up by 7.06 percent following highly positive coverage of its synthetic DNA platform.

What Traders Need To Know

  • Shares pushed higher, at times more than 4%, after a new agreement to feed antibody characterization data into Eli Lilly’s AI/ML TuneLab drug discovery platform.
  • A raised price target from $120 to $160 by Leerink, with an Outperform rating, leans into a large, early-stage AI drug discovery opportunity.
  • UBS started coverage with a Neutral stance but a still-aggressive $144 target, flagging both growth potential and valuation risk.
  • An AI mini‑binder pilot with Anthropic is real but already baked into Twist Bioscience’s fiscal 2027 orders outlook, limiting surprise upside.
  • Recent ownership filings show stake changes by a major holder and an insider, signaling active institutional positioning around TWST.

Candlestick Chart

Weekly Update Sep 14 – Sep 18, 2026: On Friday, September 18, 2026 Twist Bioscience Corporation stock [NASDAQ: TWST] is trending up by 7.06%! Discover the key drivers behind this movement as well as our expert analysis in the detailed breakdown below.

Healthcare industry expert:

Analyst sentiment – positive

Twist Bioscience occupies a differentiated position in synthetic biology and antibody services, with strong 52% gross margin and nearly 10% three-year and ~28% five-year revenue CAGRs, but remains structurally loss-making. EBIT margin of about -32% and ROE near -30% highlight a business still far from economic profitability. Balance sheet risk is contained: debt-to-equity of 0.21, current ratio 2.7, and ~$167 million in cash/short-term investments. Cash burn persists (Q3 free cash flow -$8.6 million), yet positive operating cash flow this quarter is a notable inflection.

Technically, TWST is in a steep, momentum-driven uptrend, moving from ~$134 to ~$168 in five sessions, with successive higher highs and closes near the top of daily ranges, confirmed by elevated volume on the Lilly AI/TuneLab news. Intraday 5‑minute action shows persistent dip-buying and shallow pullbacks. The first actionable level is ~$155–157, where prior breakout and volume consolidation occurred; aggressive traders can buy pullbacks to that zone with a hard stop below $150, targeting the $175–180 area near term.

The Lilly TuneLab collaboration, Anthropic mini-binder work, and rising Street targets (Leerink to $160, UBS Neutral with $144 target) firmly reposition Twist as a high‑beta AI‑enabled tools asset, warranting a premium versus Healthcare and traditional Diagnostics & Screening peers. While sector benchmarks trade at far lower price-to-sales multiples, Twist’s 22x P/S is justified by growth, platform leverage, and emerging AI workflows. Base case 12‑month target is $175, with support ~$150 and resistance near $185.

More Breaking News

Quick Financial Overview

Twist Bioscience Corporation is trading in a strong short-term uptrend, with the weekly chart showing a sharp push from the low $130s to the high $160s over a few sessions. The breakout leg is clear: a move from around $143 to about $157, then an extension to roughly $168, likely tied to the Eli Lilly TuneLab announcement. Intraday, TWST spent most of the regular session grinding between $160 and $163 before ramping into the close, finishing near the highs around $167. This type of close shows aggressive dip buying and limited profit taking into the bell.

Under the hood, the business remains early-stage and loss-making. Latest quarterly revenue sits around $118.4M, backing into roughly $376.6M over the trailing year, with a solid 52% gross margin but deeply negative operating margins. EBIT margin near -31.8% and returns on equity and assets both firmly negative confirm that Twist Bioscience is still paying heavily for growth. Cash flow is improving but not yet healthy; free cash flow was roughly -$8.6M in the most recent quarter, though operating cash flow flipped slightly positive.

On valuation, the market is paying a steep premium for growth and AI optionality. With an enterprise value near $10.2B, price-to-sales sits around 22x and price-to-book in the low 20s, numbers that demand sustained high growth and narrowing losses. Balance sheet strength is a positive offset: current ratio of 2.7 and low debt-to-equity of 0.21 give TWST room to fund operations and capex. For traders, that mix — stretched multiples, strong liquidity, and powerful AI narratives — is exactly what fuels big momentum swings.

Conclusion

This is stock news, not investment advice. Timothy Sykes News delivers real-time stock market news focused on key catalysts driving short-term price movements. Our content is tailored for active traders and investors seeking to capitalize on rapid price fluctuations, particularly in volatile sectors like penny stocks. Readers come to us for detailed coverage on earnings reports, mergers, FDA approvals, new contracts, and unusual trading volumes that can trigger significant short-term price action. Some users utilize our news to explain sudden stock movements, while others rely on it for diligent research into potential investment opportunities.

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Citations for Disclaimer

Barber, Brad M. and Odean, Terrance, Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors. Available at SSRN: “Day Trading for a Living?”

Barber, Brad M. and Lee, Yi-Tsung and Liu, Yu-Jane and Odean, Terrance and Zhang, Ke, Learning Fast or Slow? (May 28, 2019). Forthcoming: Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Available at SSRN: “https://ssrn.com/abstract=2535636”

Chague, Fernando and De-Losso, Rodrigo and Giovannetti, Bruno, Day Trading for a Living? (June 11, 2020). Available at SSRN: “https://ssrn.com/abstract=3423101”