StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $14.5857.

A number of research firms have recently commented on STNE. Weiss Ratings lowered StoneCo from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. They set a “hold” rating and a $12.60 target price for the company. BTIG Research cut their price target on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Citigroup downgraded shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $18.00 to $11.00 in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Bank of America lowered shares of StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, July 15th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other StoneCo news, Director Silvio Jose Morais sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total transaction of $101,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 21,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $237,090. This represents a 30.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 11.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of StoneCo

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of STNE. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of StoneCo during the first quarter worth about $902,000. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in StoneCo in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $70,000. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its stake in StoneCo by 37.4% in the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 28,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $450,000 after acquiring an additional 7,635 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in StoneCo by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 256,142 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,109,000 after acquiring an additional 19,723 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in StoneCo by 10.0% during the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 13,995 shares of the company’s stock worth $224,000 after acquiring an additional 1,273 shares during the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

StoneCo Stock Down 2.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:STNE opened at $9.27 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $10.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $12.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.26. The company has a market capitalization of $2.31 billion, a PE ratio of 3.74, a PEG ratio of 0.28 and a beta of 1.74. StoneCo has a 52 week low of $9.18 and a 52 week high of $19.95.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 13th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $129.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $708.24 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 22.19%. Analysts forecast that StoneCo will post 2.27 earnings per share for the current year.

StoneCo Company 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.