StoneCo Ltd. $STNE Shares Acquired by Clark Capital Management Group Inc.

Clark Capital Management Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 1.7% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,387,830 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 56,837 shares during the quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc.’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $64,064,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. USA Financial Formulas acquired a new position in shares of StoneCo in the 3rd quarter valued at $55,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. raised its holdings in StoneCo by 64.2% during the 3rd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 2,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 1,151 shares during the period. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. acquired a new stake in StoneCo during the 3rd quarter worth about $55,000. Concord Wealth Partners purchased a new stake in StoneCo during the third quarter valued at about $60,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in StoneCo by 773.6% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,608 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,000 after buying an additional 3,195 shares in the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of STNE opened at $13.81 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $15.75 and its 200-day moving average is $16.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.43. The company has a market capitalization of $3.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.03, a P/E/G ratio of 0.23 and a beta of 1.78. StoneCo Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $9.32 and a fifty-two week high of $19.95.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. StoneCo had a net margin of 15.38% and a return on equity of 21.55%. The business had revenue of $675.42 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $704.26 million. Equities research analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STNE has been the topic of several analyst reports. Zacks Research raised shares of StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Santander downgraded shares of StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of StoneCo in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.44.

StoneCo Profile

StoneCo Ltd., commonly known as Stone, is a Brazilian financial technology company that provides integrated digital payment solutions and related financial services to merchants. Through its cloud-based platform, Stone enables businesses of all sizes to accept a variety of payment methods, including point-of-sale (POS) terminals, mobile card readers and e-commerce gateways. In addition to payment acceptance, the company offers value-added services such as working capital loans, digital banking products and automated billing tools designed to help merchants manage cash flow and streamline operations.

Since its founding in 2012 by André Street and Eduardo Pontes, Stone has focused on serving over half a million merchants across Brazil’s retail, restaurant and services sectors.