StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nine research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $17.5833.

STNE has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of StoneCo from $19.50 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. BTIG Research reduced their price objective on StoneCo from $22.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on StoneCo from $20.00 to $16.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Citigroup cut 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 report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded StoneCo from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other StoneCo news, Director Silvio Jose Morais sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total transaction of $101,610.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 21,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $237,090. The trade was a 30.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 11.25% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StoneCo

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd bought a new position in StoneCo during the 1st quarter valued at $1,836,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 151.7% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,032,572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,180,000 after buying an additional 3,636,276 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its stake in StoneCo by 34.4% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 430,024 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,072,000 after buying an additional 110,101 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in StoneCo by 77.4% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 1,180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in StoneCo by 209.5% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 47,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $676,000 after acquiring an additional 32,416 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STNE opened at $10.99 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.74 billion, a PE ratio of 4.40, a P/E/G ratio of 0.20 and a beta of 1.73. StoneCo has a 1-year low of $9.45 and a 1-year high of $19.95. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $11.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $13.82.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.42. StoneCo had a net margin of 23.82% and a return on equity of 21.05%. The company had revenue of $141.16 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $675.11 million. On average, research analysts expect that StoneCo will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

StoneCo Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 4th. Investors of record on Friday, April 24th were paid a dividend of $2.53 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 24th.

StoneCo Company Profile

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.