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

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nine brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $18.80.

Several research analysts have issued reports on STNE shares. Barclays increased their price objective on StoneCo from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of StoneCo from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $12.00 to $21.00 in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, UBS Group downgraded StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $21.00 in a report on Thursday, February 1st.

StoneCo Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of STNE stock opened at $16.12 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.96 and a beta of 2.34. StoneCo has a 1 year low of $9.34 and a 1 year high of $19.46. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 18th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. StoneCo had a net margin of 13.35% and a return on equity of 11.23%. The firm had revenue of $655.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $468.47 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that StoneCo will post 1.3 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of StoneCo

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of StoneCo by 27.8% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 21,451,911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $204,437,000 after purchasing an additional 4,666,575 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $58,777,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in StoneCo in the first quarter valued at approximately $35,504,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in StoneCo during the 4th quarter worth $36,887,000. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in StoneCo by 85.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,404,305 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,913,000 after acquiring an additional 2,034,974 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.