StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Director Silvio Jose Morais Sells 9,000 Shares

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Director Silvio Jose Morais sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total value of $101,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 21,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $237,090. The trade was a 30.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

StoneCo Price Performance

NASDAQ STNE traded up $0.02 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $11.28. The stock had a trading volume of 861,193 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,604,065. StoneCo Ltd. has a 52-week low of $9.45 and a 52-week high of $19.95. The company has a market cap of $2.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.51, a P/E/G ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $12.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.17. The company has a quick ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.42. StoneCo had a return on equity of 21.05% and a net margin of 23.82%.The firm had revenue of $141.16 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $675.11 million. Equities analysts forecast that StoneCo Ltd. will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StoneCo Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 4th. Investors of record on Friday, April 24th were paid a $2.53 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 24th.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Citigroup downgraded StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $18.00 to $11.00 in a research report on Friday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on StoneCo from $20.00 to $16.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Zacks Research raised StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on StoneCo from $19.50 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, StoneCo has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.58.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On StoneCo

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of STNE. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of StoneCo by 11,473.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,736 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,721 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its position in shares of StoneCo by 74.1% in the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 2,199 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 936 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Torren Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

About StoneCo

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.