LRT Capital Management LLC Acquires New Stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

LRT Capital Management LLC bought a new position in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 28,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $229,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in STNE. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 254.7% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 4,256 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 3,056 shares in the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its position in StoneCo by 627.0% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 4,551 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 3,925 shares during the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in StoneCo by 166.7% during the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,400 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in StoneCo in the 4th quarter worth approximately $56,000. Finally, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ increased its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 31.6% in the 4th quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 7,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,000 after buying an additional 1,800 shares during the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note 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 on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Citigroup raised StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $9.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. One investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $15.38.

StoneCo Price Performance

STNE opened at $13.66 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $10.14. The firm has a market cap of $3.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.67, a PEG ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.01. StoneCo Ltd. has a 1 year low of $7.72 and a 1 year high of $16.94.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.05. StoneCo had a net margin of 16.02% and a return on equity of 13.92%. The firm had revenue of $625.86 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.68 billion. As a group, analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

StoneCo 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.