Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Sells 574,465 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. cut its stake in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 96.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 21,614 shares of the company’s stock after selling 574,465 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $320,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of STNE. Advisory Services Network LLC purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the third quarter valued at approximately $37,000. USA Financial Formulas bought a new stake in StoneCo during the 3rd quarter valued at $55,000. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the 3rd quarter worth $55,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. grew its position in shares of StoneCo by 64.2% during the 3rd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 2,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 1,151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Concord Wealth Partners bought a new position in shares of StoneCo during the 3rd quarter worth $60,000. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on STNE. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Santander cut shares of StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Zacks Research raised shares of StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of StoneCo from $19.50 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.07.

StoneCo Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of STNE stock opened at $14.36 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $15.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.27. StoneCo Ltd. has a 1-year low of $9.83 and a 1-year high of $19.95. The company has a market cap of $4.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.43.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. StoneCo had a return on equity of 21.55% and a net margin of 15.38%.The business had revenue of $675.42 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $704.26 million. On average, research analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.