StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Trading Down 4.5%

Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) were down 4.5% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $11.76 and last traded at $11.79. Approximately 1,086,789 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 5,405,337 shares. The stock had previously closed at $12.35.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on STNE. Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and set a $7.00 target price (down from $16.50) on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on StoneCo from $21.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Barclays reduced their target price on StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $20.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.80.

StoneCo Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $13.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $14.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The company has a market capitalization of $3.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.52, a P/E/G ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 2.31.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 14th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($0.04). StoneCo had a return on equity of 13.21% and a net margin of 15.27%. The business had revenue of $615.13 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $590.74 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.1 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. UBS Group AG lifted its stake in StoneCo by 14.5% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 2,001,221 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,082,000 after buying an additional 253,276 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in StoneCo in the 4th quarter worth about $2,008,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $58,777,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the first quarter valued at approximately $33,139,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 3.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,636,619 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,794,000 after buying an additional 88,256 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

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.