StoneCo Ltd. $STNE Shares Acquired by Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 32.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,415,683 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,085,506 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 1.54% of StoneCo worth $65,308,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in STNE. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. boosted its position in StoneCo by 71.7% during the 4th quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 2,499,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,971,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043,464 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank acquired a new stake in StoneCo in the 4th quarter valued at $3,546,000. Alta Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in StoneCo in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,631,000. Jain Global LLC increased its holdings in StoneCo by 381.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jain Global LLC now owns 769,596 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,553,000 after purchasing an additional 609,627 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truxt Investmentos Ltda. acquired a new stake in StoneCo in the 3rd quarter valued at $12,116,000. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

StoneCo Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of StoneCo stock opened at $9.70 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $13.37 and a 200-day moving average of $15.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The company has a market capitalization of $2.41 billion, a PE ratio of 6.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 1.73. StoneCo Ltd. has a 1-year low of $9.60 and a 1-year high of $19.95.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.42. The company had revenue of $141.16 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $675.11 million. StoneCo had a return on equity of 21.55% and a net margin of 15.38%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StoneCo Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 24th were paid a dividend of $2.53 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 24th.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on STNE. Weiss Ratings upgraded StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on StoneCo from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. UBS Group lowered their price target on StoneCo from $19.50 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Santander downgraded StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of StoneCo in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.00.

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.