StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the nine analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $17.5833.

A number of brokerages recently commented on STNE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on StoneCo from $20.00 to $16.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. BTIG Research lowered their target price on shares of StoneCo from $22.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 15th. Zacks Research upgraded StoneCo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Citigroup lowered StoneCo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of StoneCo from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other StoneCo news, Director Silvio Jose Morais sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total value of $101,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 21,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $237,090. The trade was a 30.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On StoneCo

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd bought a new stake in shares of StoneCo in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,836,000. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 151.7% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,032,572 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,180,000 after acquiring an additional 3,636,276 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in StoneCo by 34.4% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 430,024 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,072,000 after purchasing an additional 110,101 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in StoneCo by 77.4% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 1,180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in StoneCo by 209.5% in the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 47,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $676,000 after buying an additional 32,416 shares during the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

StoneCo Stock Performance

Shares of STNE stock opened at $10.99 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.74 billion, a PE ratio of 4.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.20 and a beta of 1.73. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. StoneCo has a 12 month low of $9.45 and a 12 month high of $19.95.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42. The business had revenue of $141.16 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $675.11 million. StoneCo had a net margin of 23.82% and a return on equity of 21.05%. Analysts forecast that StoneCo will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

StoneCo Announces Dividend

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

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.