If you sold your Twist Bioscience stock before November 15, 2022, your recognized loss is $0.00 — even if you lost real money. That is the single fact that decides most claims in this $17.05 million settlement, and it catches investors who are sure they were damaged. There is exactly one exception, and it applies only to shares bought in the December 2020 offering at $110.00. Claims close November 17, 2026.
Status: Claims open | Claim deadline November 17, 2026 | Opt out or object by October 7, 2026 | $17,050,000 fund | Estimated $0.31 per damaged share before fees
Why November 15, 2022 Is the Line
In a securities fraud case, a shareholder is compensated for the price inflation that a misstatement allegedly caused — and that inflation only becomes a loss when corrective information reaches the market and the price falls. Sell before the correction, and under the Exchange Act calculation you sold at the inflated price. There is nothing to recover.
Here the allegedly corrective information reached the market on November 15, 2022, when a short-seller published a report questioning Twist’s technology, its margins and how it classified certain manufacturing costs. The stock closed at $30.43 that day, down $7.57 — roughly 20% — from $38.00 the day before.
Shares bought during the class period and sold before that date carry a Recognized Loss Amount of $0. An investor in that position is still bound by the release whether or not they file.
The One Exception
Shares purchased in the December 2020 secondary offering run through a second, separate calculation under the Securities Act of 1933, and each qualifying share is credited with whichever of the two amounts is greater. That Securities Act path can produce a recovery even on a pre-November 15, 2022 sale.
The offering is a specific event: Twist completed a secondary offering on December 2, 2020 in which it sold 3,136,362 shares at $110.00 per share, including 409,090 shares sold when the underwriters exercised their option in full. If your shares came from that offering, mark the checkbox on the claim form — it is the difference between a zero and a payment.
What the Case Alleges
Twist Bioscience makes synthetic DNA on a silicon-based platform and sells it to diagnostics companies, hospitals, drug developers and academic labs. Its stock trades on the Nasdaq under TWST. Through the period covered by this case the company told investors its chip-based writing technology produced DNA at far higher volume and far lower cost than conventional methods, reported rising gross margins, and described a new Oregon manufacturing plant it called a factory of the future.
The lawsuit alleges that statements about Twist’s production process, product quality and accounting were materially false or misleading. The claims are brought under Sections 11 and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933, which target misstatements in offering documents, and Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
The defendants — Twist Bioscience Corporation and two of its officers — deny all of it. They deny making any materially false or misleading statement or actionable omission, deny any act or omission giving rise to liability, and deny that the class suffered any loss attributable to their conduct. The settlement is expressly not an admission of wrongdoing, and no court has found any of the allegations true. In September 2025 the court granted in part and denied in part the defendants’ motion to dismiss, allowing certain claims to proceed against certain defendants — a ruling about which allegations could be litigated, not about whether they were correct.
Who Is In the Class
The conditionally certified settlement class is all persons who purchased or otherwise acquired Twist common stock in the December 2020 offering pursuant to the 2020 registration statement and were damaged, and/or between December 20, 2018 and November 15, 2022, both dates inclusive, and were damaged.
Shares bought in the offering are eligible under both the Securities Act and Exchange Act calculations. Shares bought on the open market during the class period run through the Exchange Act calculation only.
Excluded are the defendants and their affiliates and subsidiaries; Twist’s present and former officers and directors and their immediate family members; the defendants’ liability insurance carriers and their affiliates; any entity in which a defendant had a controlling interest; Twist’s employee retirement and benefit plans; and the legal representatives, heirs, estates, agents, successors and assigns of anyone in those categories. Anyone who validly excludes themselves by October 7, 2026 is also out.
What the Fund Pays
The fund is $17,050,000 in cash. Based on the lead plaintiff’s expert’s estimate of the number of damaged shares, the notice puts the estimated average recovery at approximately $0.31 per share before court-approved fees, expenses and costs.
That is an estimate built on the assumption that claims are filed on 100% of eligible shares, and it is not a promise. An actual payment is a pro rata share of the net fund equal to your Recognized Claim divided by the total of all allowed Recognized Claims.
Deductions come out of the fund first: taxes and tax expenses, the costs of notice and claims administration, any award to the lead plaintiff, and court-approved attorneys’ fees and expenses. Lead counsel will ask for fees of no more than 25% of the settlement amount, or $4,262,500, plus expenses not to exceed approximately $850,000, and the lead plaintiff may request up to $10,000. If the court awards the full request and claims come in on all eligible shares, the notice estimates fees and expenses at about $0.09 per share. Class members owe nothing personally.
The Plan of Allocation, in Plain Numbers
Every qualifying share is run through two calculations and credited with whichever produces the larger figure.
Exchange Act calculation — anchors on a per-share inflation figure of $8.11:
| Sold before November 15, 2022 | Recognized Loss Amount of $0. |
| Sold between November 15, 2022 and the close on February 10, 2023 | The least of $8.11, the purchase price minus the sale price, or the purchase price minus the average closing price between November 15, 2022 and the sale date. |
| Still held at the close on February 10, 2023 | The lesser of $8.11 or the purchase price minus $25.98, the mean closing price over the statutory 90-day look-back period. |
Securities Act calculation — applies only to shares bought in the December 2020 offering and anchors on the $110.00 offering price. It uses a 0.17 multiplier on the loss for shares sold before November 15, 2022, and for later sales and shares still held it builds off the same $8.11 figure with a 10% factor, capping at $16.37 per share for shares held at the close on August 7, 2026. Those amounts also get an uplift of $0.81 per share to reflect that a Securities Act claim does not require proving intent.
Two mechanics catch people out. Transactions are matched First-In, First-Out, and recognized loss is zero on a short sale and on the portion of a transaction that covers one. And if your calculated distribution comes to less than $10.00, no payment is issued — those funds go to claimants receiving $10.00 or more.
Pull Your Brokerage Records First
Documentation is required for every transaction and holding you report — broker confirmation slips, brokerage account statements, or equivalent documents adequately evidencing the dates, prices and share counts. The notice is explicit that the parties have no information about your transactions, so a claim submitted without records can be delayed or rejected outright.
The claim form asks for four things:
- Shares held at the opening of trading on December 20, 2018.
- Every purchase or acquisition from December 20, 2018 through November 15, 2022, with a checkbox marking shares bought in the December 2020 offering.
- Every sale in that period.
- Holdings at the close on November 15, 2022 and at the close on February 10, 2023.
List transactions separately and in chronological order by trade date, and use the contract or trade date rather than the settlement date. Covering a short sale counts as a purchase on the covering date.
File one claim form per separate legal entity, combining all of that entity’s accounts on a single form. An individual’s IRA transactions are a separate entity from transactions in that person’s own name, while a corporation with several brokerage accounts files one form covering all of them. Claimants with a large number of transactions can request the required electronic file layout from the claims administrator; an electronic submission still needs a signed Proof of Claim and is not treated as filed until the administrator issues a written acknowledgment, which it sends within 60 days. Executors, trustees, guardians and other legal representatives must sign on behalf of the person they represent and attach proof of their authority.
If you are not a U.S. person as defined in the claim form’s tax certification section, the administrator also requires a completed IRS Form W-8BEN, W-8BEN-E or another form in the W-8 series, available from the IRS.
The Claim Deadline Falls the Day Before the Hearing
| October 7, 2026 | Exclusion requests and objections due. An objection must be received by the court by this date, not merely postmarked. |
| November 17, 2026 | Proof of Claim submitted online or postmarked. The notice gives the date without a timezone. |
| November 18, 2026, 10:00 a.m. | Final approval hearing, Courtroom 7, 4th floor, Robert F. Peckham Federal Building and United States Courthouse, San Jose. |
A class member who misses the claim deadline gets no payment but remains bound by the judgment and the releases in it, whether or not a claim was ever filed.
Opting Out and Objecting
An exclusion request must be submitted online or by mail — not by telephone or email — and must give the name, address and telephone number of the person or entity seeking exclusion, state that you want to be excluded from the settlement class in this case, include documentation evidencing the dates, prices and share counts of all class-period purchases and sales, and be signed by you or an authorized representative. Excluding yourself means no payment from the fund. It is also the only route that preserves an individual lawsuit, and the notice warns that such a claim may be time-barred and that pursuing one can expose you to discovery.
An objection stays inside the class. It must give your name, address and telephone number, document your class membership with the share counts, dates and prices of your class-period transactions, and state your reasons and whether they apply to you alone, to a subset of the class, or to the whole class. A pre-formatted objection form is on the settlement website. Say in the objection if you also want to speak at the hearing.
Do not submit both an exclusion request and a claim or objection. If you do, the claim or objection is disregarded and you are treated as excluded.
What Happens Next
At the November 18, 2026 hearing the court will consider whether the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate, weigh any objections, hear from class members who asked to speak, and rule on the plan of allocation and on lead counsel’s fee and expense application. Class members do not need to attend, and the date, time or format can change without further written notice. The papers supporting approval are due to be filed and posted at least 35 days before the hearing.
If the court approves the settlement, distribution still waits on any appeals and on the processing of every claim. No payment date has been announced.
How to File
File through the official settlement website, TwistSecuritiesSettlement.com, which hosts the online claim portal, the downloadable Proof of Claim, the long-form notice with the full plan of allocation, the objection and exclusion forms, and a pre-formatted spreadsheet template for listing transactions. Pull your brokerage records covering December 20, 2018 through February 10, 2023 before you start. Attach copies rather than originals, do not highlight anything, and keep a copy of what you file.
Frequently Asked Questions
I sold my Twist Bioscience stock before November 15, 2022. Do I recover anything?
Under the Exchange Act calculation, no. Shares bought during the class period and sold before November 15, 2022 carry a Recognized Loss Amount of $0, because the alleged corrective information did not reach the market until that day. There is one exception: shares bought in the December 2020 offering at $110.00 per share are also run through a separate Securities Act calculation that can produce a recovery even on a pre-November 15, 2022 sale, and each qualifying share is credited with whichever of the two amounts is greater.
How much will a Twist Bioscience claim actually pay?
The notice estimates an average recovery of about $0.31 per damaged share before court-approved fees, expenses and costs, and estimates fees and expenses at roughly $0.09 per share if the court awards what lead counsel requests. Both figures assume claims are filed on 100% of eligible shares. The actual payment is a pro rata share of the net fund based on your Recognized Claim relative to every other allowed claim, and no check is issued if the calculated distribution comes to less than $10.00.
What documentation does the claim form require?
Copies of broker confirmation slips, brokerage account statements, or equivalent documentation evidencing every transaction and holding you report – your holdings at the opening of trading on December 20, 2018, every purchase and sale during the class period, your holdings at the close on November 15, 2022, and your holdings at the close on February 10, 2023. Neither the parties nor the claims administrator has any record of your trades, so a claim without documentation can be delayed or rejected.
What was the December 2020 offering, and why does it matter?
Twist completed a secondary offering on December 2, 2020 in which it sold 3,136,362 shares at $110.00 per share, including 409,090 shares sold when the underwriters exercised their option in full. Shares bought in that offering are eligible under both the Securities Act and Exchange Act calculations, while open-market purchases run through the Exchange Act calculation only. The claim form has a checkbox for marking offering shares, and for an investor who sold before November 15, 2022 it is the difference between a zero and a payment.
Can I exclude myself from the Twist Bioscience settlement?
Yes. A written exclusion request must reach the claims administrator, online or by mail, no later than October 7, 2026, and must give your name and contact information, state that you want to be excluded from the settlement class, include documentation of the dates, prices and share counts of your class-period purchases and sales, and be signed. Excluding yourself means giving up any payment from the fund. Do not submit both an exclusion request and a claim form – if you do, the claim is disregarded and you are treated as excluded.
Are Twist Bioscience options or short sales eligible?
Common stock is the eligible security. Shares bought or sold by exercising an option do count, using the exercise date as the transaction date and the exercise price as the transaction price. Recognized loss is zero on a short sale and on the portion of a transaction that covers one. Transactions are matched First-In, First-Out, and use the trade date rather than the settlement date.
When will Twist Bioscience settlement payments go out?
No payment date has been announced. The court is scheduled to decide whether to approve the settlement at a final approval hearing on November 18, 2026 – one day after the claim deadline. Distribution follows only after approval, after any appeals are resolved, and after every claim has been processed, which the notice says takes time.
Sources
- Official settlement website — Twist Securities Settlement, including the online claim portal and frequently asked questions.
- Long-Form Notice of Pendency and Proposed Settlement of Class Action, filed as an exhibit to the Stipulation of Settlement, including the Plan of Allocation and the 90-day look-back table.
- Proof of Claim and Release form and its filing instructions.
- Class Action Complaint for Violations of the Federal Securities Laws, filed December 12, 2022.
- Peters v. Twist Bioscience Corp., et al., Case No. 5:22-cv-08168-EKL, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division.
- OpenClassActions.com — Twist Bioscience $17.05M Settlement.
One inconsistency worth flagging for anyone comparing documents: the notice materials give two different dates — March 31, 2026 and April 30, 2026 — for the mediation session at which the mediator proposed the $17.05 million figure, and one page of the settlement website names the wrong federal district. The case number, the court, the fund and every deadline above are consistent across the court-filed notice, the claim form and the settlement website.
Source and credit: the settlement terms, deadlines and benefit tiers described above are drawn from our sister site’s reporting — OpenClassActions.com: Twist Bioscience $17.05M Settlement — Claim by Nov 17 — which tracks this case against the court-approved notice and the official settlement website and is updated as the court rules.
Legal Disclaimer
This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. OpenClassActions.org is a consumer news site, not a law firm and not the settlement administrator, and is not affiliated with any party to the case described. The allegations are allegations; the defendants deny wrongdoing and no court has decided the merits. Deadlines, benefit amounts and payment timing can change as the court and the administrator act, so confirm current status on the official settlement website. You never need to pay anyone to file a claim or to receive a settlement payment.