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

Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $15.5833.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on STNE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced 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. Bank of America downgraded shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup lowered shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $18.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of StoneCo from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, BTIG Research lowered their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 15th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other StoneCo 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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 21,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $237,090. This trade represents a 30.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 11.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StoneCo

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,491,394 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in StoneCo by 23.0% during the fourth 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. boosted its stake in StoneCo by 32.7% during the first quarter. BRC Global BAH Investments Ltd. now owns 7,580,409 shares of the company’s stock valued at $107,035,000 after buying an additional 1,867,018 shares in the last quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. boosted its stake in StoneCo by 435.5% during the first quarter. Squadra Investments Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 6,662,253 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,071,000 after buying an additional 5,418,053 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in StoneCo by 151.7% during the first 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. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

StoneCo Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of STNE stock opened at $11.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.33. StoneCo has a 1 year low of $9.45 and a 1 year high of $19.95. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $10.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $13.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.79 billion, a PE ratio of 4.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 1.73.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.42. The company had revenue of $141.16 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 expect that StoneCo will post 2.31 EPS 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.