StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Receives $14.30 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $14.30.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of StoneCo in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $12.60 target price on the stock. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of StoneCo from $15.00 to $13.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of StoneCo from $20.00 to $16.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Citigroup downgraded StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $18.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut StoneCo from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th.

StoneCo Stock Performance

STNE opened at $10.11 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.08, a PEG ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 1.75. StoneCo has a 1-year low of $9.08 and a 1-year high of $19.95. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.26.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 13th. The company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $129.73 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $708.24 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 22.19%. Equities analysts forecast that StoneCo will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Silvio Morais sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total transaction of $101,610.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 21,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $237,090. This represents a 30.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StoneCo

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BRC Global BAH Investments Ltd. purchased a new position in StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at $84,501,000. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in StoneCo by 151.7% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,032,572 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,180,000 after buying an additional 3,636,276 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 1,288.4% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 577,959 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,265,000 after buying an additional 536,331 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 286.6% during the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 163,065 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,298,000 after buying an additional 120,883 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. boosted its position in StoneCo by 435.5% in the 1st quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 6,662,253 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,071,000 after buying an additional 5,418,053 shares during the period. 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.