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

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) has earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nine analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $17.5833.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on STNE shares. UBS Group decreased their price objective 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. Zacks Research upgraded shares of StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. BTIG Research decreased their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $20.00 to $16.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $18.00 to $11.00 in a report on Friday, May 15th.

Insider Transactions at StoneCo

In other StoneCo news, Director Silvio Jose Morais sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total transaction of $101,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 21,000 shares in the company, valued at $237,090. This represents a 30.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StoneCo

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of STNE. BRC Global BAH Investments Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the fourth quarter worth approximately $84,501,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 131.5% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 219,614 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,248,000 after purchasing an additional 124,734 shares during the last quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 71.7% during the fourth quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 2,499,733 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,971,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043,464 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,546,000. Finally, Jain Global LLC grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 381.1% during the third quarter. Jain Global LLC now owns 769,596 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,553,000 after purchasing an additional 609,627 shares during the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

StoneCo Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:STNE opened at $10.59 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.64 billion, a PE ratio of 4.24, a P/E/G ratio of 0.19 and a beta of 1.73. StoneCo has a 1 year low of $9.45 and a 1 year high of $19.95. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $11.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $13.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42. The firm had revenue of $141.16 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $675.11 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 23.82% and a return on equity of 21.05%. Analysts expect that StoneCo will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StoneCo Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 24th were issued a dividend of $2.53 per share. 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.