StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Stock Price Down 7% After Analyst Downgrade

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)’s share price was down 7% during trading on Wednesday after Susquehanna lowered their price target on the stock from $22.00 to $19.00. Susquehanna currently has a positive rating on the stock. StoneCo traded as low as $10.69 and last traded at $10.78. Approximately 748,343 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 5,061,006 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.59.

STNE has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $7.00 price objective (down previously from $16.50) on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of StoneCo to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of StoneCo from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on StoneCo from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.40.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StoneCo

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 8.6% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 52,330 shares of the company’s stock worth $869,000 after acquiring an additional 4,146 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 88,256 shares during the last quarter. Fiducient Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo during the first quarter worth $233,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in StoneCo during the 1st quarter worth about $2,580,000. Finally, Axxcess Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in StoneCo in the first quarter valued at approximately $187,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

StoneCo Stock Performance

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 cap of $3.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.71, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.29. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $11.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $12.79.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $615.13 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $590.74 million. StoneCo had a return on equity of 13.69% and a net margin of 16.02%. Analysts predict that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.21 EPS for the current year.

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.