Legal & General Group Plc Purchases 1,546,355 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 424.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,910,596 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,546,355 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $28,258,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of STNE. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of StoneCo by 11,473.3% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,736 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 1,721 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC bought a new position in StoneCo in the third quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Torren Management LLC bought a new position in StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. acquired a new stake in StoneCo during the 3rd quarter worth $55,000. Finally, Concord Wealth Partners acquired a new stake in StoneCo during the 3rd quarter worth $60,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

StoneCo Stock Performance

STNE opened at $11.45 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $12.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.54. StoneCo Ltd. has a 52-week low of $9.45 and a 52-week high of $19.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.85 billion, a PE ratio of 4.58, a PEG ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 1.73.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42. The company had revenue of $141.16 million for 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, sell-side analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StoneCo Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 24th were given a dividend of $2.53 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 24th.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group cut their target price on StoneCo from $19.50 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on StoneCo from $20.00 to $16.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. BTIG Research cut their price target on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $18.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.58.

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.