StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) shares gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $13.73, but opened at $14.63. StoneCo shares last traded at $14.6750, with a volume of 1,916,898 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of StoneCo from $20.00 to $19.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Zacks Research lowered shares of StoneCo from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.50.

StoneCo Price Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.63. The company has a market capitalization of $4.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.53, a P/E/G ratio of 0.30 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $675.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $704.26 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 15.38% and a return on equity of 21.33%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in STNE. BRC Global BAH Investments Ltd. bought a new stake in StoneCo during the fourth quarter worth approximately $84,501,000. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda boosted its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 1,054.8% during the 4th quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 5,236,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,450,000 after buying an additional 4,783,158 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new position in StoneCo in the 3rd quarter valued at $58,017,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in StoneCo in the 4th quarter valued at $45,247,000. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd raised its holdings in StoneCo by 218.4% in the 3rd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 4,234,251 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,070,000 after acquiring an additional 2,904,432 shares during the period. 73.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.