Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Makes New $233,000 Investment in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 12,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of STNE. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the third quarter valued at $264,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its position in shares of StoneCo by 28.1% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 25,024 shares of the company’s stock valued at $267,000 after acquiring an additional 5,489 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the third quarter valued at $143,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of StoneCo by 72.6% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 2,969,463 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,684,000 after acquiring an additional 1,249,463 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of StoneCo by 72.3% in the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 72,428 shares of the company’s stock valued at $773,000 after acquiring an additional 30,391 shares in the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

StoneCo Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:STNE opened at $16.35 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.14 billion, a PE ratio of 16.19, a P/E/G ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 2.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The business has a 50-day moving average of $16.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $15.52. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12 month low of $9.34 and a 12 month high of $19.46.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 18th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $655.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $468.47 million. StoneCo had a return on equity of 11.23% and a net margin of 13.35%. As a group, research analysts forecast that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STNE has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays upped their price objective on StoneCo from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $12.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Citigroup upped their target price on StoneCo from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Susquehanna dropped their target price on StoneCo from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, UBS Group lowered StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StoneCo currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.00.

StoneCo Company Profile

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.