StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the eleven research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $17.2143.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on STNE shares. Zacks Research cut StoneCo from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of StoneCo from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STNE. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 11,473.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,736 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 1,721 shares in the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in StoneCo during the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Advisory Services Network LLC purchased a new position in StoneCo during the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in StoneCo by 334.4% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. 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 institutional investors and hedge funds.

StoneCo Stock Up 7.8%

Shares of NASDAQ STNE opened at $16.08 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.60 billion, a P/E ratio of -29.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.26 and a beta of 1.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.43. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.13. StoneCo has a 1 year low of $8.52 and a 1 year high of $19.95.

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

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.