Twist Bioscience Corporation (TWST) had a pretty good Monday, with shares climbing over 10% after the synthetic biology company reported first-quarter results that showed solid progress on its path to profitability.

The company posted a loss of 50 cents per share for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, matching Wall Street's expectations. But the more interesting story was on the revenue side, where Twist brought in $103.70 million—up 17% from a year ago and ahead of both the $102.72 million consensus estimate and management's own guidance of $100-$101 million.

The adjusted EBITDA loss came in at $13.4 million for the quarter, an improvement from the $16.3 million loss the company posted in the same period last year. It's still losing money, but the trend is heading in the right direction.

Growing Customer Base and Product Shipments

Twist Bioscience shipped products to approximately 2,538 customers during the quarter, up from around 2,376 a year earlier. More impressively, gene shipments jumped to approximately 271,000 from 205,000 in the prior-year period—a 32% increase. The company noted that more than 50,000 genes were manufactured specifically for data characterization.

Gross margin expanded to 52% in the first quarter compared to 48.3% a year ago, reflecting improved operational efficiency. The company ended December 31, 2025, with approximately $198 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments.

"As we continue through the year and beyond, we remain focused on driving toward profitability with consistent revenue growth, gross margins above 50% and disciplined spending to invest in scalable, sustainable growth opportunities while serving more customers, launching more products, and expanding our addressable markets," said Emily Leproust, CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience.

Raised Guidance Across the Board

Management bumped up its fiscal 2026 revenue outlook from the previous range of $425-$435 million to a new range of $435-$440 million, above the consensus estimate of $431.39 million. The company said the increase should be generally balanced across its DNA Synthesis and Preparation Solutions (DSPS) and Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) segments.

Twist expects gross margin to remain above 52% for the full fiscal year and reiterated its target of reaching adjusted EBITDA breakeven in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. For the second quarter, the company is guiding for revenue between $107-$108 million, compared to the consensus of $105.84 million.

Analyst Perspective

William Blair remains optimistic about the company's trajectory. "We remain confident in the long-term revenue growth trajectory of the company as it invests aggressively to penetrate multiple distinct markets, which collectively give the company a long runway of 20%-plus growth and a variety of upside shots on goal," the firm wrote.

Analyst Matt Larew noted that the company's efforts to make moderate investments as it scales into the Factory of the Future (FOTF) and pushes toward adjusted EBITDA breakeven make sense and should broaden the appeal if management can execute on its goals. William Blair maintains an Outperform rating on the stock.

Twist Bioscience shares were trading up 10.59% at $45.42 at the time of publication on Monday.