California Public Employees Retirement System Lowers Stock Holdings in StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 23.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 381,493 shares of the company’s stock after selling 113,854 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $5,387,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. BRC Global BAH Investments Ltd. bought a new stake in StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $84,501,000. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda lifted its holdings in StoneCo by 1,054.8% in the 4th quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 5,236,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,450,000 after purchasing an additional 4,783,158 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd bought a new position in StoneCo in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $58,017,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in StoneCo in the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,247,000. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in StoneCo by 1,004.5% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,934,964 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,618,000 after buying an additional 1,759,782 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at StoneCo

In related news, Director Silvio Jose Morais sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total transaction of $101,610.00. Following the sale, the director owned 21,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $237,090. This represents a 30.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STNE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 17th. BTIG Research cut their target price on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of StoneCo from $20.00 to $16.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of StoneCo from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, StoneCo has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $14.59.

StoneCo Stock Performance

STNE opened at $10.76 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $10.96 and a 200 day moving average of $13.28. 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 Ltd. has a 12 month low of $9.45 and a 12 month high of $19.95. The firm has a market cap of $2.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.32 and a beta of 1.73.

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, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42. The business had revenue of $141.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $675.11 million. StoneCo had a return on equity of 21.05% and a net margin of 23.82%. As a group, research analysts forecast that StoneCo Ltd. will post 2.27 EPS for the current year.

About StoneCo

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.