StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Shares Gap Down – Here’s Why

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) shares gapped down before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $18.87, but opened at $17.17. StoneCo shares last traded at $17.1180, with a volume of 2,330,382 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on STNE. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on StoneCo from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of StoneCo from $15.50 to $18.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Bank of America increased their price target on StoneCo from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of StoneCo to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.44.

StoneCo Price Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average of $18.23 and a 200-day moving average of $15.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market cap of $4.76 billion, a PE ratio of -23.86, a P/E/G ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 2.01.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.03. StoneCo had a negative net margin of 8.37% and a positive return on equity of 18.71%. The company had revenue of $643.82 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.78 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StoneCo

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in StoneCo by 23.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,330,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,974,000 after purchasing an additional 635,677 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC acquired a new position in StoneCo in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,479,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in StoneCo by 773.6% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,608 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 3,195 shares during the last quarter. Ground Swell Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $429,000. Finally, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co acquired a new position in shares of StoneCo in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,269,000. 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.