Vanguard Group Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in StoneCo Ltd. $STNE

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,330,177 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 635,677 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc.’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $62,974,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. USA Financial Formulas purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the 3rd quarter worth about $55,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its position in shares of StoneCo by 64.2% during the third quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 2,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 1,151 shares during the period. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. purchased a new position in shares of StoneCo during the third quarter valued at about $55,000. Concord Wealth Partners bought a new position in StoneCo in the third quarter worth about $60,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in StoneCo by 773.6% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,608 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 3,195 shares in the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on STNE. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings raised StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Zacks Research upgraded StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on StoneCo from $20.00 to $19.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.50.

StoneCo Stock Performance

Shares of STNE opened at $13.72 on Friday. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12 month low of $8.95 and a 12 month high of $19.95. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $15.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.58. The company has a market cap of $3.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.97, a P/E/G ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.02. StoneCo had a return on equity of 21.55% and a net margin of 15.38%.The business had revenue of $675.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $704.26 million. Research analysts anticipate that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

StoneCo Profile

StoneCo Ltd., commonly known as Stone, is a Brazilian financial technology company that provides integrated digital payment solutions and related financial services to merchants. Through its cloud-based platform, Stone enables businesses of all sizes to accept a variety of payment methods, including point-of-sale (POS) terminals, mobile card readers and e-commerce gateways. In addition to payment acceptance, the company offers value-added services such as working capital loans, digital banking products and automated billing tools designed to help merchants manage cash flow and streamline operations.

Since its founding in 2012 by André Street and Eduardo Pontes, Stone has focused on serving over half a million merchants across Brazil’s retail, restaurant and services sectors.