LPL Financial LLC Acquires 11,871 Shares of StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE)

LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ:STNE) by 15.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 87,015 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 11,871 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in StoneCo were worth $694,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of STNE. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in StoneCo by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 21,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $168,000 after acquiring an additional 1,205 shares during the period. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ grew its position in StoneCo by 31.6% in the 4th quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 7,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. increased its holdings in shares of StoneCo by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 20,781 shares of the company’s stock worth $166,000 after purchasing an additional 2,044 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 254.7% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 4,256 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 3,056 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of StoneCo by 166.7% during the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,400 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. 73.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

StoneCo Price Performance

STNE opened at $13.12 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $4.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.25, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 2.05. StoneCo Ltd. has a 12 month low of $7.72 and a 12 month high of $17.09. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.91.

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.07. StoneCo had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 16.02%. The company had revenue of $582.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.59 billion. On average, research analysts expect that StoneCo Ltd. will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised StoneCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on StoneCo from $5.70 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of StoneCo from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays increased their price objective on StoneCo from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of StoneCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $9.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $15.25.

About StoneCo

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.