StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Rating Increased to Buy at Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has $15.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $9.00.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on STNE. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, StoneCo presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $15.25.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STNE opened at $13.12 on Tuesday. StoneCo has a 1 year low of $7.72 and a 1 year high of $17.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.25, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.05. The company’s 50-day moving average is $10.52 and its 200 day moving average is $9.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $582.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.59 billion. StoneCo had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 16.02%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that StoneCo will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StoneCo

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 170.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 440,682 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,962,000 after purchasing an additional 277,963 shares during the last quarter. Invst LLC raised its stake in StoneCo by 43.1% during the 3rd quarter. Invst LLC now owns 32,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $369,000 after buying an additional 9,867 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of StoneCo during the 3rd quarter valued at $156,000. Tidal Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo in the 3rd quarter worth $567,000. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 100.0% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 29,228 shares of the company’s stock worth $329,000 after acquiring an additional 14,614 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

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.