StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Stock Rated “Hold” by Wall Street Analysts

Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) have been given an average rating of “Hold” by the ten analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $14.30.

A number of research firms have weighed in on STNE. Bank of America lowered shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on StoneCo in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $12.60 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings raised StoneCo from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Thursday, October 15th.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STNE opened at $8.00 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.22 and a beta of 1.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. StoneCo has a 52 week low of $7.06 and a 52 week high of $19.45.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 13th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.01. StoneCo had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 22.19%. The firm had revenue of $129.73 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $708.24 million. On average, equities analysts predict that StoneCo will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Silvio Morais sold 21,000 shares of StoneCo stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.91, for a total transaction of $208,110.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 11.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StoneCo

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 47.6% in the 1st quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 7,728,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $109,120,000 after buying an additional 2,491,394 shares during the period. BRC Global BAH Investments Ltd. raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 32.7% during the 1st quarter. BRC Global BAH Investments Ltd. now owns 7,580,409 shares of the company’s stock valued at $107,035,000 after buying an additional 1,867,018 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 559.3% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 6,885,009 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,306,000 after buying an additional 5,840,741 shares during the period. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 435.5% during the 1st quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 6,662,253 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,071,000 after buying an additional 5,418,053 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 151.7% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,032,572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,180,000 after acquiring an additional 3,636,276 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

About StoneCo

StoneCo Ltd. is a financial technology company that provides payment processing and business-management solutions primarily to small and medium-sized businesses in Brazil. Through its Stone brand, the company enables merchants to accept payments in physical stores and online, including card, digital-wallet and other electronic transactions.

Its products and services include point-of-sale terminals, payment gateways, transaction processing, digital banking and financial-account services, as well as working-capital and other credit solutions for eligible merchants.