StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Rating Reiterated by Morgan Stanley

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE)‘s stock had its “underweight” rating reissued by analysts at Morgan Stanley in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $7.00 price objective on the stock, down from their prior price objective of $16.50. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential downside of 38.22% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of StoneCo from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of StoneCo from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $20.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, StoneCo has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.80.

StoneCo Price Performance

STNE stock opened at $11.33 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $13.11 and a 200-day moving average of $14.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 2.31. StoneCo has a 12 month low of $9.34 and a 12 month high of $19.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $615.13 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $590.74 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 15.27% and a return on equity of 13.21%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that StoneCo will post 1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of STNE. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in StoneCo by 204.1% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 7,741,662 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,823,000 after acquiring an additional 5,195,787 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $58,777,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 2,445.5% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 2,287,353 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,151,000 after purchasing an additional 2,197,495 shares during the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo in the first quarter worth $33,139,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. bought a new stake in StoneCo during the 2nd quarter valued at $23,483,000. 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.