Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 635,677 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 23.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,330,177 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 635,677 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 1.16% of StoneCo worth $62,974,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STNE. HighTower Advisors LLC bought a new stake in StoneCo in the third quarter worth $2,479,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Ground Swell Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo in the third quarter worth about $429,000. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo in the third quarter worth about $2,269,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the 3rd quarter valued at about $140,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

StoneCo Stock Performance

StoneCo stock opened at $13.72 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market cap of $3.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.97, a P/E/G ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 1.78. StoneCo Ltd. has a 1-year low of $8.95 and a 1-year high of $19.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $15.83 and a 200-day moving average of $16.58.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $675.42 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $704.26 million. StoneCo had a return on equity of 21.55% and a net margin of 15.38%. Sell-side analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on STNE shares. Santander cut StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Zacks Research upgraded StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. UBS Group dropped their price objective on StoneCo from $20.00 to $19.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of StoneCo in a report on Tuesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.50.

StoneCo Company 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.