Tower Research Capital LLC TRC Sells 29,013 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

Tower Research Capital LLC TRC reduced its position in shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 62.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,178 shares of the company’s stock after selling 29,013 shares during the quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $164,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of STNE. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in StoneCo by 191.7% during the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 12,021,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $113,480,000 after purchasing an additional 7,899,800 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in StoneCo by 27.8% during the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 21,451,911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $204,437,000 after purchasing an additional 4,666,575 shares in the last quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda bought a new stake in StoneCo during the 1st quarter valued at about $41,101,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in StoneCo during the 1st quarter valued at about $35,504,000. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of StoneCo by 85.9% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,404,305 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,913,000 after acquiring an additional 2,034,974 shares during the period. 75.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

StoneCo Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:STNE opened at $12.66 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. StoneCo Ltd. has a 1-year low of $8.07 and a 1-year high of $14.83. The company has a market capitalization of $3.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.30 and a beta of 2.22. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $12.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $11.73.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 16th. The company reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.08. StoneCo had a net margin of 7.51% and a return on equity of 6.66%. The business had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.03 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of StoneCo from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 22nd. HSBC upgraded shares of StoneCo from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Monday, June 12th. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, May 11th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $13.00 price target for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $18.00 price target on shares of StoneCo in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $14.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 3rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, StoneCo currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $16.25.

StoneCo Profile

StoneCo Ltd. provides financial technology and software solutions to merchants and integrated partners to conduct electronic commerce across in-store, online, and mobile channels in Brazil. It distributes its solutions, principally through proprietary Stone Hubs, which offer hyper-local sales and services; and sells solutions to brick-and-mortar and digital merchants through sales team.