Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Acquires Shares of 177,300 StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 177,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,413,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. owned approximately 0.06% of StoneCo as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of STNE. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its holdings in StoneCo by 254.7% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 4,256 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 3,056 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 166.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,400 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 4,000 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in StoneCo during the fourth quarter worth approximately $56,000. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ raised its holdings in StoneCo by 31.6% in the 4th quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 7,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 1,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at $73,000. Institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

STNE has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and set a $9.00 target price (down from $19.00) on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $14.50.

StoneCo Price Performance

StoneCo stock opened at $11.32 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $9.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.92. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12 month low of $7.72 and a 12 month high of $17.93. The company has a market capitalization of $3.50 billion, a PE ratio of 8.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.07. StoneCo had a net margin of 16.02% and a return on equity of 13.92%. The business had revenue of $582.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.59 billion. Analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

StoneCo Company Profile

StoneCo Ltd. provides financial technology and software solutions to merchants and integrated partners to conduct electronic commerce across in-store, online, and mobile channels in Brazil. It distributes its solutions, principally through proprietary Stone Hubs, which offer hyper-local sales and services; and sells solutions to brick-and-mortar and digital merchants through sales team.