Exchange Traded Concepts LLC Has $1.84 Million Stock Holdings in StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC decreased its stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 43.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 124,429 shares of the company’s stock after selling 96,445 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $1,840,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of STNE. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in StoneCo during the first quarter worth about $902,000. Strs Ohio bought a new position in StoneCo in the first quarter valued at approximately $70,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in StoneCo by 69.4% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 57,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $915,000 after purchasing an additional 23,375 shares in the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of StoneCo by 37.4% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 28,075 shares of the company’s stock worth $450,000 after purchasing an additional 7,635 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of StoneCo during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $44,366,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

StoneCo Price Performance

NASDAQ:STNE opened at $14.36 on Thursday. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12-month low of $9.83 and a 12-month high of $19.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 1.78. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $15.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $675.42 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $704.26 million. StoneCo had a return on equity of 21.55% and a net margin of 15.38%. On average, analysts anticipate that StoneCo Ltd. 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.