Bayforest Capital Ltd Acquires Shares of 19,739 StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 19,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $317,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of STNE. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $70,502,000. JGP Global Gestao de Recursos Ltda. lifted its position in shares of StoneCo by 484.8% during the 1st quarter. JGP Global Gestao de Recursos Ltda. now owns 4,472,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,874,000 after acquiring an additional 3,707,941 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $21,330,000. Fourth Sail Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $13,640,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of StoneCo by 124.7% during the 2nd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,833,717 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,413,000 after acquiring an additional 1,017,717 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

StoneCo Trading Up 5.7%

Shares of STNE opened at $17.97 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $17.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $14.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.48. The company has a market capitalization of $5.14 billion, a PE ratio of -25.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.35 and a beta of 1.99. StoneCo Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $7.72 and a fifty-two week high of $19.95.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $643.82 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.78 billion. StoneCo had a positive return on equity of 18.71% and a negative net margin of 8.37%. As a group, analysts forecast that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of StoneCo from $15.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on StoneCo from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America lifted their price objective on StoneCo from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on StoneCo from $15.50 to $18.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded StoneCo to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.44.

About StoneCo

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.