240,905 Shares in StoneCo Ltd. $STNE Purchased by Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd.

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 240,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,539,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. owned approximately 0.08% of StoneCo as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in StoneCo by 32.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,415,683 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,308,000 after purchasing an additional 1,085,506 shares in the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. raised its holdings in StoneCo by 1.7% during the third quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 3,387,830 shares of the company’s stock worth $64,064,000 after purchasing an additional 56,837 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new position in StoneCo during the third quarter worth about $58,017,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its holdings in StoneCo by 25.3% during the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 2,515,851 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,209,000 after purchasing an additional 507,431 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. raised its holdings in StoneCo by 71.7% during the fourth quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 2,499,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,971,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043,464 shares in the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on STNE shares. Weiss Ratings raised shares of StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of StoneCo in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of StoneCo from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Zacks Research raised shares of StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Santander cut shares of StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, StoneCo presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.00.

StoneCo Trading Down 3.2%

Shares of StoneCo stock opened at $10.42 on Tuesday. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12-month low of $10.26 and a 12-month high of $19.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market cap of $2.59 billion, a PE ratio of 6.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.23 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a 50-day moving average of $13.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $15.33.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, March 3rd. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.02. StoneCo had a net margin of 15.38% and a return on equity of 21.55%. The company had revenue of $675.42 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $704.26 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StoneCo Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 24th were issued a $2.53 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 24th.

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.