Legal & General Group Plc Acquires 1,546,355 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 424.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,910,596 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,546,355 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.67% of StoneCo worth $28,258,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of STNE. BRC Global BAH Investments Ltd. bought a new position in shares of StoneCo during the 4th quarter worth approximately $84,501,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 32.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,415,683 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,308,000 after purchasing an additional 1,085,506 shares during the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. increased its position in shares of StoneCo by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 3,387,830 shares of the company’s stock worth $64,064,000 after purchasing an additional 56,837 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the 3rd quarter worth about $58,017,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 25.3% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 2,515,851 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,209,000 after purchasing an additional 507,431 shares during the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have weighed in on STNE shares. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $19.50 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Weiss Ratings raised StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. BTIG Research dropped their price target on StoneCo from $22.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 15th. Zacks Research upgraded StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Citigroup lowered StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $18.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.58.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of STNE stock opened at $11.45 on Monday. StoneCo Ltd. has a 1 year low of $9.45 and a 1 year high of $19.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $12.69 and its 200-day moving average is $14.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.58, a PEG ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 1.73.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42. StoneCo had a net margin of 23.82% and a return on equity of 21.05%. The business had revenue of $141.16 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $675.11 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that StoneCo Ltd. will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StoneCo Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 24th were given a dividend of $2.53 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 24th.

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.