2,765,955 Shares in StoneCo Ltd. $STNE Acquired by Norges Bank

Norges Bank bought a new stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,765,955 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,366,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. increased its position in shares of StoneCo by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Atmos Capital Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 11,982,873 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,581,000 after purchasing an additional 359,037 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in StoneCo in the first quarter valued at $70,502,000. Azora Capital LP raised its stake in StoneCo by 15.9% in the first quarter. Azora Capital LP now owns 2,583,510 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,075,000 after buying an additional 355,192 shares in the last quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. boosted its position in shares of StoneCo by 13.9% during the 2nd quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 2,082,789 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,408,000 after acquiring an additional 254,075 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of StoneCo by 26.8% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,927,369 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,915,000 after acquiring an additional 407,177 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group raised their target price on StoneCo from $15.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research raised shares of StoneCo to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, StoneCo has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.21.

StoneCo Stock Performance

Shares of STNE opened at $14.68 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $17.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.06. The firm has a market cap of $4.20 billion, a PE ratio of -27.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.28 and a beta of 1.85. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12-month low of $7.72 and a 12-month high of $19.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.43. The firm had revenue of $669.49 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $669.81 million. StoneCo had a negative net margin of 7.28% and a positive return on equity of 20.18%. As a group, equities analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

StoneCo Company Profile

StoneCo Ltd. provides financial technology and software solutions to merchants and integrated partners to conduct electronic commerce across in-store, online, and mobile channels in Brazil. It distributes its solutions, principally through proprietary Stone Hubs, which offer hyper-local sales and services; and sells solutions to brick-and-mortar and digital merchants through sales team.