StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Shares Up 7.1% – Still a Buy?

Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) traded up 7.1% on Friday . The company traded as high as $16.99 and last traded at $17.0650. 3,367,956 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 43% from the average session volume of 5,954,511 shares. The stock had previously closed at $15.93.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $15.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 29th. Bank of America lifted their target price on StoneCo from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on StoneCo from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded StoneCo to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.21.

StoneCo Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.82 billion, a P/E ratio of -31.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 2.01. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.93.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.43. The company had revenue of $669.49 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $669.81 million. StoneCo had a negative net margin of 7.28% and a positive return on equity of 20.18%. On average, analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StoneCo

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of STNE. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of StoneCo by 327.4% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,154 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 2,416 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its holdings in StoneCo by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 77,562 shares of the company’s stock worth $813,000 after acquiring an additional 3,850 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd raised its stake in StoneCo by 93.5% in the 1st quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 162,380 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,702,000 after acquiring an additional 78,481 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in StoneCo during the first quarter valued at about $128,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in StoneCo by 18.4% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,473 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 1,317 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

About StoneCo

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.