StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Rating Lowered to Strong Sell at Zacks Research

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) was downgraded by Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Santander cut shares of StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of StoneCo from $20.00 to $19.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $16.86.

StoneCo Trading Down 1.1%

NASDAQ:STNE opened at $16.75 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.79 billion, a PE ratio of -31.02, a P/E/G ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 1.81. StoneCo has a 52-week low of $8.64 and a 52-week high of $19.95. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $15.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

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

Institutional Trading of StoneCo

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of STNE. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in StoneCo by 11,473.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,736 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,721 shares in the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo in the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Torren Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Advisory Services Network LLC acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the third quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, USA Financial Formulas purchased a new stake in StoneCo during the third quarter worth about $55,000. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About StoneCo

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.