What happened
Shares of Twist Bioscience (TWST 1.12%) were sinking 17.5% as of 11:18 a.m. ET on Friday. The steep decline came after the synthetic DNA maker announced its fiscal 2023 first-quarter results.
Twist reported Q1 revenue of $54.2 million, up 29% year over year. This revenue total narrowly beat the consensus Wall Street estimate of $54.1 million.
The company posted a net loss in the first quarter of $41.8 million, or $0.74 per share. This result reflected improvement from the net loss of $45.6 million, or $0.91 per share, in the prior-year period. It also was much better than the average analysts' estimate of a net loss of $1.13 per share in Q1.
With these better-than-expected results, why is the life sciences stock falling so much? Twist provided disappointing guidance. The company expects Q2 revenue of $56.5 million, well under the consensus view of $61.9 million.
So what
There's a good argument to be made that Twist's guidance wasn't bad enough to justify its stock decline. The company still expects full-year fiscal 2023 revenue of between $261 million and $269 million, which are the same numbers it gave in November 2022. Wall Street's average revenue estimate for fiscal 2023 is $265.5 million -- smack dab in the middle of Twist's guidance range.
However, after the great first quarter, analysts hoped that Twist would increase its guidance. That didn't happen, so the stock fell.
Now what
It's best to have a long-term perspective with any stock. That's especially true, though, with one like Twist Bioscience that could have tremendous future growth prospects.
One big development to look forward to later this year is the early-access product offering for the company's latest DNA data storage chip. Twist could have massive market potential over the long run with storing data in DNA.
