StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the nine research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $17.5833.

Several brokerages recently commented on STNE. BTIG Research reduced their target price on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 15th. Citigroup downgraded shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $11.00 in a report on Friday, May 15th. UBS Group reduced their target price 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $20.00 to $16.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Santander cut shares of StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th.

Institutional Trading of StoneCo

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda raised its stake in StoneCo by 47.6% in the 1st quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 7,728,014 shares of the company’s stock worth $109,120,000 after purchasing an additional 2,491,394 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 23.0% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,714,651 shares of the company’s stock valued at $114,101,000 after buying an additional 1,440,760 shares in the last quarter. BRC Global BAH Investments Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 32.7% during the 1st quarter. BRC Global BAH Investments Ltd. now owns 7,580,409 shares of the company’s stock worth $107,035,000 after acquiring an additional 1,867,018 shares during the period. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 435.5% during the 1st quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 6,662,253 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,071,000 after acquiring an additional 5,418,053 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 151.7% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,032,572 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,180,000 after acquiring an additional 3,636,276 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

StoneCo Stock Performance

Shares of STNE stock opened at $11.35 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.54, a PEG ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.33. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $12.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.62. StoneCo has a 52 week low of $9.45 and a 52 week high of $19.95.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.42. The business had revenue of $141.16 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $675.11 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 23.82% and a return on equity of 21.05%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that StoneCo will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

StoneCo Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 24th were paid a $2.53 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 24th.

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.