StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) Posts Earnings Results, Meets Expectations

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42, FiscalAI reports. The business had revenue of $141.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $675.11 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 15.38% and a return on equity of 21.55%.

Here are the key takeaways from StoneCo’s conference call:

• StoneCo said 1Q26 was broadly in line with its expectations, with softer first-half dynamics driven by a weak macro backdrop for smaller merchants, normal seasonality, and higher-than-expected credit losses.
• The company continued to return substantial capital, distributing BRL 3.6 billion year to date for a 27% yield, and still plans at least another BRL 1.4 billion of share repurchases in 2026.
• Total revenue and income rose 6% year over year to BRL 3.6 billion, while adjusted net income increased 3% to BRL 549 million; however, adjusted gross margin fell as credit provisions and operating costs increased.
• Credit quality weakened in the quarter, with NPLs 15-90 days and NPLs over 90 days both rising and provision expense reaching BRL 166 million, pushing cost of risk to 21.9%.
• Management said early actions on underwriting, pricing, and product simplification are starting to help, with March first-payment defaults improving and April TPV trends described as better, supporting an unchanged full-year 2026 outlook weighted toward the second half.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STNE traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $9.70. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 9,755,641 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,546,926. StoneCo has a 1-year low of $9.60 and a 1-year high of $19.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.22 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $13.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $15.21.

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 given a $2.53 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 24th.

Institutional Trading of StoneCo

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in StoneCo during the 4th quarter valued at about $215,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of StoneCo by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 282,453 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,177,000 after purchasing an additional 27,637 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in shares of StoneCo by 193.9% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 44,831 shares of the company’s stock valued at $674,000 after purchasing an additional 29,578 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,626,000. Finally, Zacks Investment Management grew its position in shares of StoneCo by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 124,027 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,834,000 after purchasing an additional 8,909 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on STNE shares. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $19.50 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Santander downgraded shares of StoneCo from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of StoneCo in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded StoneCo from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, StoneCo has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.